Potential
by Cliodhna
Summary: For five years Buffy's been running a school for slayers, watchers, wiccans and half demons, but when Angel uncovers an ancient prophecy about her and her friends, her world of Potential begins to fall apart. Runner Up at the Sunnydale Memorial Awards!
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns all. The idea to call a school that Buffy runs 'Potential' came from a fanfic I read very very long ago and can't remember who it was by!

A/N: I'm not a massive fan of the way things are turning out in the season eight comics – so this is my take on the continued adventures of Buffy et al. Also, I know it's not realistic to bring back so many old characters, but I just cannot resist it. Plus, none of this is realistic, let's face it. This is the first long haul fic I've ever tried to write so please bear with me and please review as it makes me quite ridiculously happy.

Additional A/N: This fic has recently been nominated for the best Post Series Fic award at Sunnydale Memorial Fanfiction Awards! Voting is now open at the Sunnydale Memorial Fanfiction Awards - if you like my writing, drop in and vote for me and my three nominated stories, Potential, La Cara Verdadera, and Sineya.

Update: Potential was awared First Runner Up in the Best Post Series Fic category at Sunnydale Memorial Awards! Thank you so much to everyone who voted for me, and if you'd like to see the banner, it's on my website, link on my profile.

**Potential; School for the Mystically Abled.**

**Chapter One**

Buffy gathered the new students in the entrance of the school. Ushering them inside, she grinned at the looks of awe on the children's faces as they looked up at the huge chandelier above them and the vast acres of white marble stretching above and beyond as far as they could see.

'This is the entrance hall. This would be where we enter.' Buffy walked over to the round reception desk, where a blonde woman sat, awaiting introduction. 'This is Harmony Kendall, our secretary and receptionist. If you ever need any help here at Potential, she's your man.'

'Hi everyone! Could you hand me the forms with your details please? I'll enter them into the computer and it'll randomly select who you'll be rooming with!' Harmony beamed as she took the bunches of paper from the children.

As she did her admin, Buffy viewed the new pupils in front of her.

Five years ago, after the Sunnydale hellmouth collapsed, she and her surviving friends had made their way to the Hyperion in L.A. as the new head of the Watcher's Council with hundreds of new slayers at his beck and call, Giles decided the best thing to do would be to start a school for slayers. As soon as this idea formed, others followed – why stop at slayers? Watchers, Wiccans and Half Demons were all to be educated at the school too. Angel Investigations were invited to join the ranks of the staff, and so

'Potential, School for The Mystically Abled,' was born. Several months later, the school was set up and ready to go, and Giles sent Robin Wood, Kennedy and a bunch of other skilled slayers to the Hellmouths around the world. Potential was in a huge Victorian mansion house in the Californian countryside, with seven grades and just under 400 students. As principle, it was Buffy's job to show around each year's new batch of slayers, watchers, wiccans and half demons.

Which is what she was doing now.

'Okay kids. You've all read the information pack about Potential. You're being trained to hunt demons – to save the world. Any of you seen a demon before?'

Not a single child put their hand up.

'Well, you're about to. Yeah?' Buffy asked a girl with her hand up. 'What's up?'

'It's just – we've all only just turned 11 years old. Are we really old enough?'

'I was 15 when I was called. If I'd had 4 years of training beforehand, I woulda been so much more prepared for the trials of slayage. So, anyway – Demons. We have several working for us. Each of them is perfectly safe and some of the best people I've ever met. Harmony.'

Harmony beamed. 'Yes Captain.' She shook her head. Her demon appeared and the children jumped back.

'That's a vampire.' Buffy turned and walked toward a huge door on the left. 'C'mere. This,' she pushed open the door, 'is basic Wicca.' The door swung open to show about twenty or so teenagers, half of whom were tying little bundles together and the other half who were making pencils chase each other around the room. A tall man with greying hair and glasses was handing bunches of lavender to the students making the bundles.

'Buffy!' the man rushed over to the door and handed Buffy a sprig. "Willow's a genius. Lavender scapulas. Brilliant. These the new students?'

Buffy accepted the lavender and slid it into the clip in her hair.

'Scapulas. Fun every time.' She smiled at the man who was the closest thing to a real father she'd ever had. 'Guys, this is Rupert Giles. Call him Giles, it's weird if you don't. He's your vice principle, and he teaches basic Wicca.'

'Nice to meet you all. You'll all have this to look forward to!'

He beamed at the twenty or so scared kids. Turning toward his pupils, his face fell. 'Making scapulas and making pencils chase each other … oh…'

Buffy rolled her eyes. 'Come on. Next class to meet.'

Buffy stepped back out of the room and turned left, heading past Harmony's desk and turning left again. Pausing outside another huge door, she stopped to address the pupils again.

'This school's basically a big circle – there's stairs everywhere, and if you get lost, just keep going round until you find yourself again. All the classes are on this floor. You'll get the hang of it eventually.'

She pushed open the door to reveal a room filled with girls holding crossbows, aiming at large dartboards.

A woman with long dark hair stood at the far end of the room, also holding a crossbow.

'And…FIRE!' Forty arrows went speeding into the boards, each landing precisely in the centre. 'Oh, Buffy!' She leapt from her podium and ran to the door. 'Hey, B, these the new kids? Gotta say, they get smaller every year.'

'Guys, this is Faith Lehane – Faith. She's a slayer.' Buffy smiled at her old enemy. They had been very close ever since taking down the first.

'That I am, B. Okay, squirts. I run a tough class and I expect you to keep up. I don't tolerate lateness, and I expect every slayer to be able to at least try to take me in a fight.' She winked. 'Not many have.' She turned serious again. 'I learned from the best. I wanna teach you like that.'

A little boy put his hand up. 'Yeah, kid, what's up?'

'Who taught you, Miss Lehane?'

'It's Faith. You can just call the teachers here by their first names. And, well, Buffy here taught me. She's wearing the slayer pants in this relationship. Load – and – FIRE!'

Her students released their arrows again.

'Let's get on, kids.' Buffy smiled at her young charges, which were looking at her in awe. 'Next class, advanced Wicca.'

They continued left along the corridor, Buffy pointing out the elevators which were off limits to students and for teacher and guest use only. Turning left again, let them into a class with about twenty people in their late teens and their red haired teacher inside.

'Everyone, this is Willow Rosenberg, the most powerful witch in the western hemisphere. She's the witch that made the slayers of you active,' Buffy said, pointing to the slayers of the group.

'What's the up today, Will? With the…circle of students holding hands and the big spooky vortex in the middle?'

Buffy indicated the portal Willow's class had created.

'I thought we'd take a field trip to the old Sunnydale crater. We'll be back before the end of the period, promise!'

'Awesome. Well, we'll leave you to your vortexy goodness and go see Andrew.' Buffy ambled out of the room and into the one just next door. 'Come on in. This is computer science. You can find a helluva lotta information on a PC and it's always handy to know your way around one. This is Andrew Wells, our resident computer geek, and all round…Andrew, what the hell are you doing?' Buffy exclaimed, gesturing at the whiteboard where he'd drawn a scale picture of the Red Dwarf Mining Ship.

'I was teaching! About Red Dwarf! It sorta has to do with computers…Holly was a computer and had an IQ of 6000…'

'5094 more than you then. Stick to computers, Andy, that's what I pay you for.'

Buffy marched the new students out of the class and across the corridor to the lab, whilst trying to hide the smile on her face. 'This is our mad science lab, and this is our mad scientist, Winifred Burkle. Known as Fred.'

'Hi guys! I teach all three science so I hope you're not all just about the demons!' Fred beamed at them.

'Come on kids, this way.' Buffy led them back across the corridor into another classroom. 'This is Prophecy and Planning, known as P&P. Prophecy's are a major thing that will impact all of you at some point and it's important that you recognise them and can interpret them. This is also where you will learn how to make and execute plans. This is you humble teacher, Angel.'

'Hey, kids.' Angel spared them all a quick smile before continuing handing out ancient looking books to his students.

'Angel was a vampire for many hundreds of years, but three years ago; he was involved in a prophecy called the Shanshu, when he was gifted with humanity in return for his atonement. He saved the school, ya see.'

'Wow…' a little girl sighed, staring up at Angel's handsome face.

'Thanks for the intro, Buffy.' Angel grinned.

'Any time. On with the tour!' Buffy headed out of the classroom and into the one next door. 'This is Xander Harris. He teaches about our past battles, and the class is aptly named 'Scooby History.' Giles kept diaries all those years and so did I, so we have an enormous archive of information on every demon we face and every battle we survived. Even some that we didn't.' She smiled at Xander. 'Plus, Xander was there. Knows it all first hand.'

'Hey new guys! This class is pretty easy, no actual dates or languages to remember –just names, places, and thrilling plotlines.' He grinned at the kids. 'We got some good stories in the Scooby circle. But it'll be seven years of hard labour 'til you find out how I got my eye patch!'

The kids smiled weakly.

'Whatcha working on today Xand?' Buffy asked him.

'Azura? Tell Buff what we're doin'?' Xander motioned for a girl to stand up.

'We're discussing the time you and…' She checked her notes, 'Riley Fine -'

'Finn!' corrected Xander, trying to keep a poker face.

'Yeah, Finn…had so much sex that you released oppressed spirits into a frat house, causing girls to go bald, walls to become orgasmic and Xander to nearly drown.' She giggled weakly. 'Xander called this topic 'Poltergasms.''

Buffy smiled faintly. 'Been trying to repress that for like 8 years, Xand, but thanks for bringing that up again.' She turned and shuffled out of the classroom and into the next. 'This is Vi, she's a slayer and she teaches French.' Buffy gestured toward a gangly woman in her early twenties with a shock of bright red hair. 'Hey Vi.'

Vi waved at the group by the door before continuing her lesson.

'C'mon. English next. You'll love this class.' Buffy led them to the next class where a beautiful dark haired woman was joking with her class. 'This is Cordelia Chase. Every member of our staff has an appallingly complex past and Cory's no exception. She's part demon. The story of every teacher will be covered in your classes with Xander…but I'm sure you heard the rumours. Am I right?

'Is it true Willow flayed a man? And tried to end the world?' one girl piped up.

'I 'eard zat Andrew was a supervillain,' a small girl with a French accent whispered.

'All true. Seriously, you'll get the full stories from Xander – everyone is safe at Potential.'

'I'm Cordy,' the teacher broke through their conversation. 'I clearly teach English. But I'm destined for superstardom. Don't forget it.'

'Yeah yeah Cor. Seeya at lunch.' Buffy swept out and into the corridor. 'This isn't a classroom, it's the Coven HQ.' Buffy paused outside the door. 'These women are very powerful witches and their power is totally pure. They're seers, that's how they track down suitable pupils, like you guys. They find slayers, people suitable to be watchers and wiccans, and half demons. People proficient at Seeing will be offered the chance to join the coven.' Buffy opened the door.

'Buffy!' A willowy blonde woman rose from her cross legged position on the floor. 'New students?'

'Yep. Whaddya think, Althenea?'

'Strong,' she nodded. 'It's a good catch.'

'Kids this is Althenea Deiter, Paige Gerard, Helena Porter and Cassandra Winters. Our Coven.' Buffy smiled at the seers and backed out of the room and into the hall, opposite yet another enormous door.

'This is the library. Brace yourself. This is always breathtaking.'

She pushed open the door and every mouth fell open.

It was a cavernous rectangular room with hundreds of thousands of bookshelves reaching way up to the unimaginably high ceiling. There were floor to ceiling windows along the two longest walls, and there were chairs and couches, huge tables and little desks, and PCs and coffee machines everywhere.

'Our librarian, Kit Emerson, will be lurking somewhere. KIT!'

'Yeah, hang on!' Kit's head appeared from around the side of a bookshelf. She flicked her wrist at a pile of books on a table. 'Return.' The books flew to their shelves.

'Kit lived in Sunnydale; she was a good friend of my sisters'. She came across us in L.A. where we started out and she joined us.' Buffy smiled at the first years who were still gazing around like they were dreaming.

'The library's a perfect place to study, do research or even just hang out,' Kit said, directing more books to shelves with magic. 'As long as you cast a muffling charm on yourself, you can be as loud as you want.'

'Sadly, you wont learn those for another term or two, so, 'sshhhhhh' in the library,' Buffy whispered. 'C'mon.'

She led them through the long room and out the other side to another corridor, where she pointed out the boys and girls restrooms, and the next class they were due to visit.

'Math, with Rhona the slayer.' Buffy stepped inside. 'Rhona, like Vi, was working with us in Sunnydale when the Hellmouth collapsed.' Rhona waved. 'Just so you kids know, the level that you get to in your core subjects – Math, English, French, Computer Sciences and Regular Sciences – that level is high enough to get you into college if that's where you want to go. We aren't forcing you to work with the council. We just want you to be prepared.'

She turned and stepped into the next class. 'Research Skills, with _my_ little sister, Dawn Summers.'

Dawn smiled. 'Hi! Research skills is extremely important for any slayer or watcher – although if you're anything like_ my_ sister, you'll make your friends and relatives do it for you.'

'Ha.'

Buffy chuckled and led her group to the next door. Pausing there, she informed the group that it was History of The Council, with Watcher Wesley Wyndham Price.

'This is easily the most boring subject here – not including math. But it's important. So stick at it.' She stepped inside, where Wesley was lecturing on the Shadow Men.

'Wes.'

'Hello Buffy. We're discussing the shadow men.'

'Score.' Smiling at her friend and ex-watcher, she walked through to the next classroom. 'History – yes, more history, except this one's fun! History of the Slayer.'

She pushed open the door. 'Your teacher? Spike.'

''ello Buffy.' Spike grinned.

'Spike, like Angel,' the grin fell from his face, 'was a vampire for hundreds of years. Then about eight years ago, a behaviour modification chip was placed in his brain, causing him to feel immense pain every time he hurt a human. Then, six years ago, he endured the demon trials in order to win his soul. A year later, he died while wearing a mystical amulet. Weeks after that, the amulet brought him back as a ghost. And soon after that, he was corporealized. Except…he came back human.'

'Yes I did. I was human before Angel, so tell him to suck on that, kids.' He smiled again.

'What are we lecturing on today?' Buffy asked him, smiling.

'You, actually.' He gestured at his class, who were all in their late teens. 'They've finally reached the topic where they get to learn about you.'

'What are you telling them, Spike?' Buffy frowned.

'Nothing bad, pet,' he chuckled. 'Just covering your weapon collection.'

'Oh, good. Seeya!' She practically ran to the next class, where a green, horned demon was standing in front of a large map gesturing wildly.

'Hello, sugarsnap.'

'Hey Lorne. Lorne teaches about demon dimensions, obviously having come from one himself.' She smiled and he smiled back before she headed to the next class, the new pupils following tiredly.

'This is demonology 101.' Buffy stepped inside where a blonde woman sat on a desk chatting to her pupils about something with excess mucous.

'Hey Buffy, new guys. I'm Anya.'

'Anya was a vengeance demon for a thousand years before she lost her powers and joined the scoobies. Then, she got her powers back. then, she lost 'em again. Then she died. Then, a demon called D'hoffryn accidentally raised her when he granted someone's wish, which curiously enough, was 'I wish I could talk to that nice blonde woman again. Boy was he surprised.'

Anya smiled. 'I'm living totally vengeance free these days. Go away now, I'm teaching them all about Fyarl demons.' She chuckled. 'I can't even say the name without remembering Giles. Ahh. Good times.'

Buffy chuckled and walked across the corridor to the opposite door, which had a sign on the door reading 'SAFE.'

'Okay kids, this is very important. If this door says anything but 'safe' on it, do not under any circumstances go inside. This room contains our half demons – werewolves and half breeds. When it says unsafe, they are practicing getting the demon under control. When it says safe, they're probably just meditating.'

She walked inside, the kids following her at some distance.

The room was filled with people, some of whom looked normal, some of whom didn't. The man teaching them was short, with bright red hair and an oversize shirt on.

'Oz. Hey.' Buffy smiled at him, a favour which he returned. 'Oz is a werewolf. He knows how to control his inner demon and he's teaching this to his students. All werewolves not yet able to control their lycanthropy will be provided with a very strong cage to stop them hurting others.' She waved at the class of demons before walking out a door opposite to the one they had entered.

The kids smiled as they recognised the reception area.

'Told you it was a circle. Got a coupla places left to show ya before we're done.'

She turned right and right again, arriving at a door that was open, showing forty pupils sparring and their teacher, a muscly guy with no hair.

'Kids, this is your defence skills class and this is your teacher, Charles Gunn.'

He swaggered over them. 'Just call me Gunn. This is a tough class, sorta goes hand in hand with Faith's along there. But I deal in hand to hand combat – Kung Fu, Street Fighting, Kickboxing and Tai Chi. No weapons to hide behind. Just raw power. See you in class.' He grinned at the terrified looks on their faces. 'Relax. It's great.'

Buffy shook her head, smiling at Gunn's intimidation of the children.

'Okay. Last one. Lunch Hall!' Buffy walked to a door directly behind Harmony's desk, only several metres back. she walked in and went over to the buffet section where people got their food. Behind the tables was a demon with very loose skin, who was placing large bowls of food on the surface in front of him.

'Kids, this is Clem. He's a demon.'

The kids rolled their eyes. 'Well duh,' one whispered.

'He's our chef.' She indicated the many tables in the hall. 'This is where you eat, hang out, and listen to announcements from that podium over there. So you can sit, now, and grab some food, 'cause it's nearly lunchtime. So meet your fellow students and later on Harm will tell ya who you're rooming with. Welcome to Potential.'

And with that, Buffy walked out of the door.

Breathing heavily, she leaned against the wall outside the lunch hall. Hearing Harmony's voice, she waved away Harmony's concerns about her health, and headed to the elevators. Stepping inside, and pressing level one, she frowned. As well as things were going at Potential lately, she couldn't help but feel it was the calm before the storm. As she walked along the marble corridor to her enormous office, she had no idea a pocket sized Urala demon was watching her.

Flying back to its master in a cave a mile away from the school, the Urala knelt before an enormous throne. Sitting on it was a human sized demon, red, with blood all over it.

'Mighty Newarr. She suspects.'

'Well that's no fun.'

A/N; Okayyy….so what do you think? Please review and tell me if I should keep going.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, I'm gonna keep going for now, but please tell me if you find a mistake or have any helpful suggestions or even questions about plotlines etc. If my character writing seems a little off in the next few chapters, don't worry, I'll get to that later.

* * *

**Chapter Two.**

'For the love of God, stop you whining,' Buffy snarled angrily, pacing around her office. 'Oz saw you do it and so did two other students! I know it was you!' She glared at the surly teenage warlock sitting in front of her desk. 'Did you think we wouldn't catch you? Did you forget Potential isn't like other schools? Are you really that challenged?'

The phone on her desk rang. Never taking her eyes off the boy in front of her, she picked it up and slammed it to her ear. '_What!?_' she demanded.

It had been a very bad say so far. She'd woken feeling unusually nauseous and bitchy, she'd broken up two fights among pupils and had fights herself with both Willow and Xander. And now, this little cretin in front of her had bewitched a werewolf cage to trap a non-werewolf first year inside. On top of that, her phone call had just informed her of another conflict happening elsewhere in the school.

'Stay there,' she ordered the offending boy.

Running to the spiral staircase next to Spike's office which led directly into the canteen, she clattered down the stairs and into the cafeteria, where Clem stood covered in chilli sauce.

'Dawn. Anya. They took it into the grounds…but not before throwing their lunch on me. I was only trying to help…at least this stuff smells better than what's usually thrown on me…'

Buffy didn't stop to chat. She ran out of the cafeteria door that led to the grounds where Anya and Dawn were screaming at each other.

'Can't you see I'm trying?' Dawn wailed.

'Trying? You're not trying! You never tried!' Anya screamed back, pouting. 'You're so in your own world, Dawn!'

Dawn let out a high pitched wail of grief. 'I'd rather be in my world than yours! You make me so…'

Buffy expected her to scream 'angry' or 'mad' or even a melodramatic 'suicidal.' What she did not expect was for her to yell '_emotional!_' and run back inside with her hands over her face.

Buffy turned to reprimand Anya for fighting with Dawn during school hours in a very public place; students were grouped nearby, slack jawed; when Anya stumbled and fell.

'Ahn!' She rushed to her side; Anya was just opening her eyes after being unconscious for about ten seconds.

'I'm okay, Buffy, I just tripped…the ground's uneven…why are we outside? Where'd Dawnie go?' She frowned. 'We were having lunch.'

'Yeah…you sorta threw it on Clem.' Buffy helped Anya to her feet and supported her as she stood unsteadily.

'What?' her frown deepened. 'No we didn't. Did we? Did he say or do something appalling to warrant such punishment?'

'I don't think so. I think something's up. The whole school's acting stir crazy today…' Buffy suddenly jerked away from Anya who had been leaning on her for support. 'What are you doing? Get off me now!' Buffy pushed her off, and without her strength holding her up, Anya promptly fell down again.

'Buffy?' Anya called at Buffy's retreating back, before bursting into loud tears.

xxxxx

'How are the brotherhood doing, Locar?' Newarr asked the little Urala from his throne in the middle of the large underground lair he occupied.

'Superbly, Master. The spells are working perfectly. The subjects are beginning to feel the effects.' A twisted smile contorted Locar's features. 'There has been much upheaval already today…'

Newarr raised an eyebrow. 'And there will be more, right? There better be. Damned brotherhood takes up so much space what with the chanting and the burning of stuff.'

He surveyed his minion. 'Still, it'll be worth it, right Locar?'

The tiny demon nodded vigorously.

'It had better be. I'd quite like to minimise my time tinkering with the do-gooding scoobies…although if things go my way I'll be seeing a lot more of 'em.'

He grinned wickedly. 'In a manner of speaking, anyway.'

xxxxx

Willow marched through the marble corridors of level one 'til she reached Buffy's office. Crashing through the doors noisily, she skidded to a halt when she realised Buffy was nowhere to be seen. 'Buffy?' she called tentatively.

'Just me.'

Willow noticed the boy for the first time. 'Oh. Daniel. Where'd Buffy go? D'you know?'

'Don't know. Got a call, told me to stay put and ran out.'

'Oh excellent detective work there, Dan, no wonder you get such great marks in my classes,' Willow said, her voice becoming unusually scathing. 'I can tell you one thing about your future, and that's that it won't be with the Council. You'll make a God-awful slayerette. You're a waste of mine and any other teacher's time.'

She marched out of the room leaving a slightly hurt looking boy behind her.

Stopping outside her own office, she suddenly realised how harsh and inappropriate she'd been. Her worried musings were interrupted by the sound of Buffy walking toward her.

'Willow,' Buffy started. 'About this morning…'

'Yeah, I know, I'm really…'

They both looked at each other in confusion as they tried to apologise for their behaviour, but found themselves unable.

Buffy stuttered. 'I'm – I'm – I'm sorry you're such a bitch!'

Willow stared wide eyed, and Buffy clapped her hands to her mouth in abhorrence to what she'd just uttered.

'Well, so are you!' Willow replied haughtily.

'I didn't mean – what's going on-' Buffy faltered.

'What's happening…?' Willow trailed off, her eyes rolling back in her head.

And for the second time that day, Buffy was holding an unconscious friend.

xxxxx

'You still love her,' Angel snarled.

'Well so do you!' Spike sat on Angel's chair and put his feet on the desk.

'Listen, we had a love that will last forever!' Angel began pacing around the room.

Spike laughed. 'Yeah, twelve years ago.'

'I think twelve years is included in 'forever,' Captain Peroxide!' Angel sank to the floor and put his head in his hands.

'Ooh, slagging the hair, original. Anyway, who was she in a relationship with last, Peaches? Me! Ha! Suck, I say once more, on that, my friend,' Spike raised an eyebrow at Angel sitting on the floor.

Angel looked up. 'That was six years ago.'

'That's what you think, mate.' Spike grinned widely and stretched his arms out.

'As if. And did you have a forever love? No. so it'll have long expired by now.' Angel sniffed.

'A relationship like mine and Buffy's only gets stronger with time. Unlike yours. You'll remember, the longer you were broken up, the less she visited you?' Spike smirked at the look on his grandsire's face.

'We both had responsibilities then!' Angel rose to his feet and stood in front of Spike.

'And what did I do after we broke up? I moved in. I saved her life and that of her friends. She loves me.' Spike got to his feet too.

'She doesn't. And I saved the whole school!'

'She does! And I saved the whole world! More than once!' Spike looked hurt by Angel's most recent comment.

'Preaching to the converted, shorty!' Angel fumed. He had saved the world tons of times.

'Don't you mean 'peaching' to the converted, big brow boy?' Spike faltered. That had been a _bad_ insult.

'That was appalling, Spike.' Angel smiled. His opponent was losing his edge.

'Well so are you.'

Yes. He really was losing the edge.

'I can't believe you are comparing yours and Buffy's _fling_ to what she and I had!'

'One night of passion and then enormous heartache? Yeah, you're right; I'm devastated I can't give her that.'

'More than one night!'

'Really? 'Cause I can't see you lasting particularly long…'

'Shut up, Spike.'

'Harsh, Angel. I don't know how I'll get back from that one.'

'Oh my God, could you guys be any louder or more pathetic?' There was a crash as Faith burst into the room to add her two cents to the fight. 'I can hear ya in my office, which, if you'll remember, is quite a way away from here,' she gestured around Angel's office. 'I hope for her sake Cordelia isn't in her office,' she said, indicating the office next to Angel's, which Cordelia occupied. 'You'll burst her eardrums.'

'Sorry, pet, we were just…' Spike looked at Angel, a frown on his face. 'What were we talkin' about, mate?'

'Um…' Angel trailed off, confused. 'Lesson plans?'

'Forget who you're talkin' to, peaches?' Spike asked him, genuine concern on his face. 'It's, me, Spike. We don't talk 'bout lessons. I barely talk 'bout them in class. We're more 'Wouldya like a beer, former enemy who I still don't really enjoy the company of but will endure so for the sake of others' kinda guys.'

Angel just stared at him.

Spike frowned. 'Did you say we were fighting, love?' Faith nodded. 'We don't fight, as a rule. Do we Angel?'

'Nah. We decided for the sake of everyone not to piss each other off.'

Faith looked cynical. 'So what just happened? 'Cause from where I was sittin' – which was far, far away – it sounded like a grade A fight for Buffy's affections.'

At those words, both men blushed deeply.

'Don't be silly, Faith - ' Angel started before Spike cut him off.

'We don't think about Buffy like that anymore, pet.' He plastered a smile on his pale features. 'Be seeing you then.'

Faith just shook her head at the two lovelorn ex vamps and walked back to her office, muttering about the after effect of becoming human being a late onset of insanity.

'What was that then?' Spike demanded of Angel.

'Oh leave me alone, Bleach head.' Angel headed out of the office, calling behind him 'I'm just feeling very emotional today.'

Spike frowned again as he headed to his own office, next to Buffy's.

'Yeah. Me and you both, mate,' he muttered as he reached his office, sank into a chair and sobbed, not knowing that Angel had doubled back to his own office to do the same.

xxxxx

'You are lecturing them wrongly, you absolute _tosser!_' Giles yelled at Xander

'I am telling them the truth, Giles!'

'They do not need to know such details as the ones you are giving them!' he picked up a heavy book and hurled it at Xander, who ducked.

'Sooner or later, they are going to come across someone or some_thing _that affects them the way Spike did Buffy at that point in her life. Just because you are _still _in denial about it does not mean it didn't happen! And think about the fact that this is coming from _me,_ Giles! If _I_ can take it now, six years later, why can't you?' Xander picked up a volume of his own and hurled it at the old watcher. It missed him, flying past his left shoulder. 'Is it 'cause you'd abandoned your post then? Abandoned Buffy? That why you can't accept it?'

'I can accept it Xander, I am not so petty as you. I just do not think the students need to know such filth!'

'It's Buffy's choice to reveal this to them, and they are not getting _filth _anyway! Spike is a teacher, imagine how much respect he'd lose if they knew the full story!' Xander laughed cruelly. 'Or is it just that you can't stand to know about your perfect Buffy doing the nasty with a dead guy?'

Giles blanched.

''Cause I gotta say, that's not easy for me to take either, old man, but it happened! And Spike and Buffy are both different people now!'

Xander shook his head. 'Buffy's waited years for me to come around to her relationships with the undead. Even though they're human now. And now just when I fully understand her, you come in on your high grouse and start bitching about how I shouldn't teach my kids the way I do?'

'High _horse, _Xander. What can you possibly be teaching those children if you cannot construct a simple cliché?'

'Giles, they need to know how to handle these things.' Xander stepped toward his father figure. 'They need to learn about our pasts.'

'Our pasts? Why not teach them how to fall in love with Demons? Or how to leave a woman at the alter?'

'Giles, stop,' Xander pleaded.

'How to fight demon robots or snake mayors or a HellGod? Something useful?'

'Buffy never killed Glory. Or Ben,' Xander stated quietly, cocking his head to one side, regarding Giles with mild curiosity. 'That was you, wasn't it?'

Giles inhaled deeply. 'The point still stands that -'

'You killed an innocent,' Xander accused him.

'He was _not_ an innocent!' Giles yelled. 'You petty, immature little wanker!'

'Woah…woah…' Xander mumbled as he keeled over, hitting his head on a filing cabinet.

'Xander!' Giles rushed to his aid.

'Sorry, G-man, it's nothing…guess I didn't eat enough breakfast or something. What were you saying?'

Giles, helped Xander to his feet, his brow furrowed in concentration. 'Not sure. Don't think it was anything important.' He supported Xander as they walked out of the classroom and through to the kitchens where Clem would have an ice pack for Xander's head. 'Can't have been…or I'd remember…'

xxxxx

'Locar?' Newarr wailed. 'Lo-oh-oh-caaaarrr?'

'Yes, Master?' the Urala gasped in pain as he ran toward the throne.

'You get hurt, Locar? Who did it? Buffy? Bitch.' Newarr crossed his arms. 'She always was stubborn. Still, my spell will have her fixed up in no time, Locar. We'll get her back for what she did to ya.'

'No, Mighty Newarr…I have a stitch, from running.'

'Oh.' Newarr's face grew darker. 'Why don't you fly then? Brain-dead demon.'

'Sorry, Master.' The Urala flew up so that it could look Newarr in the eye. 'You have a visitor, my Lord.'

'Is it her?' Newarr, asked brightly, straightening up on his throne.

'It is, Sir. She wants to be here for the upcoming battle.'

'Battle? Ha. There wont be any old battle. They don't know a thing.'

'Well, actually, Master…'

'What, Locar? You said she suspected something was up but didn't know anything. What does she know?'

'She knows only a feeling of unease, my Lord. But she and her minions -'

'Buffy doesn't have minions. She has friends. Equals. She's the same as them all. _I _have minions. Because _I_ am better than you.'

'Yes, my Lord. She and her friends have noticed the changes in personality. They are bound to research it soon.'

'Yeah, well, as long as they're at each other's throats or weeping into their duvets long enough for me to complete the ritual, I don't care.' Newarr smiled as he saw the woman he'd been longing to see enter the room. Sliding off his throne to go and meet her, he called back to Locar, one final warning.

'Just make sure the school doesn't have the Prophecies of Pepcyrho in their Archives.

Our little plan is prophesied in that book, curiously enough. And if they get that book, and decipher the prophecy, and stop it coming to pass – I will kill you.'

He reached his visitor. 'Or I'll make someone else do it.'

He embraced her warmly. 'You'd like that, baby, wouldn't you?

'Oh yeah…' she looked Newarr in the eye. 'I'd like to kill the one who did this to you, too.'

'Unfortunate little witch,' Newarr commented.

Their laughter echoed out of the lair.

* * *

A/N: Please review 'cause I'm really nervous about this fic! Tell me how I'm doing, please!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: See chapter one

Disclaimer: See chapter one

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, again! I'm technically supposed to be studying for exams right now so just remember that every review makes me happier and more willing to study. If I fail biology I'm fully blaming you all. )

**Chapter Three**

'As you all, no doubt, know, there has been some kind of interference of the magical sort at Potential.' Buffy announced, standing on the podium in the cafeteria. 'Some of the staff, and possibly – probably – some of the students have been affected. And – well we're just gonna have to suck it up, quite frankly.' She surveyed the hall which was filled with every pupil and every member of staff including Clem, Harmony and Kit. Everyone had been handed a prophecy volume from the library archives and they were all searching for something – anything that fitted the bizarre personality switches that had been zooming around the halls of Potential. 'If and when you find something, tell a member of staff immediately. Yes?' she asked a watcher in 6th year who'd put his hand up.

'What do we get if we find the prophecy?'

'You get me not expelling you, Faith not plunging stakes through your chest, Gunn not pummelling you Willow not turning you into a gnat and Harmony not sucking you dry,' Buffy stated.

Wesley stood up. 'She is, of course, kidding. Or at least under the thrall of the spell. You wont get expelled or transfigured or beaten or…killed, if you don't find anything.'

'That's what you think. Right, guys, this is extremely important. This is the first time the school has ever been threatened in such a way. This is possibly apocalyptic.'

She stepped down and grabbed a book from the pile still waiting to be read. She sat at a table where Giles and Andrew were seated with three students.

'Oh very inspiring, Buffy, truly,' Giles remarked in a whisper.

'Shut up Giles.'

'This is utterly pointless anyway. These kids are never going to find anything, useless pathetic sacks of skin.'

'Uh, Giles!' Andrew nudged him and pointed to the students who were sharing their table. They all looked devastated that one of their favourite teachers had said something so cruel.

'Oh piss off Andrew,' Giles said, grumpily, flipping a page of his book.

'Come on, we have to try!' Andrew said, quite happily.

'You're such a freak, Andrew. Who actually enjoys research?' Buffy scoffed.

'I'm going to ignore that and assume that it's whatever's attacking the school that's making you such a primo _bitch_.'

'Well you'd be wrong.' She turned a page. 'It's all brought on by _you_.'

xxxxx

Several hours later, well into the night, grades one to five had gone to bed while six and seven remained to research with the staff. There had been no discoveries yet, two false alarms and five fights breaking out between staff and pupils.

Buffy sat at a table with Anya and Spike, having moved away from Andrew and Giles after Giles had begun tapping his pen in an annoying way and Andrew kept humming show tunes. She flipped a page of her 16th century text without paying much attention to the content. She was, to be fair, paying more than Anya, who was at that moment, filing her nails and seemed to be fighting back tears. She was also paying more attention than Spike, who was dividing his time by staring at Buffy and staring at Angel, with a hurt expression on his pale face.

Angel, on the other hand, was hard at work. He was sitting at a table with Gunn, Vi and a 7th year witch. Gunn and Vi were playing tic-tac-toe but Angel and the witch, a girl named Sophie, were swapping theories about a volume Angel had been reading through.

'Buffy?' Angel called over to her. 'I think I've got it.'

'Okay…everyone to the library. Caffeine boosts will help when decoding prophecies.' She stood up and was followed by the majority of the hall, until Sophie called out to her.

'Buffy? Students too?'

Buffy thought about it. 'Yeah, I think so. You guys only have a year or two left in school until you go out and do the thing for real so I say you should get some first hand experience.'

'I second that,' agreed Giles, who for a brief moment had snapped out of his spell induced funk.

They made their way through the school to the library and sat around the large tables, with Angel and his book the focus of attention. Cups of coffee in hand, the serious meeting began to get underway.

'Okay. Angel, read us our prophecy,' commanded Buffy.

'Okay. It was written by the powerful prophet … Pepcyrho. He was a total genius but an appalling poet.'

Spike choked on his coffee and started coughing loudly.

Staring at Spike, Angel continued. 'Anyway…he insisted in rhyming it out. So it's bad.'

'We can deal, just get the hell on with it, Peaches,' Buffy snarled.

'Ha! She called you Peaches! One-Nil to Captain Peroxide!'

'That was hurtful, Spike. And you, Buffy,' Angel pouted at the blonde pair, who both simultaneously raised an eyebrow at his jutted lower lip. 'Okay, prophecy. This was thrown out in 1066 because The Watcher's Council deemed it offensive. The prelude to the prophecy says that it's intended for the 'school of slayers' and that it should be used by 'the greatest slayer' and her 'least likely foe.' The watchers didn't like the thought of more than one slayer so it got the boot.'

'Just – spit it out, boy!' Giles snapped.

'Okay, okay.' He cleared his throat and began.

'One among many

The first to unfold.

One among four,

Dark secrets she told.

One among billions,

The difference, his heart,

One from a council,

That was torn apart.' The group exchanged glances, and Angel went on.

'Many great feats

these warriors did achieve,

and from their bodies

their spirits shall leave.

A great fight repeated,

This becomes its brother.

After their use,

They are forced into another.' Eyes widened and there was a collective shudder.

'The two that love the slayer so,

her guardian, her champion.

The one that starts the day anew,

The one that saw a millennium.

The spirits of warriors into these four shall go.

The strongest shall stay; the weakest, sent below.' Angel frowned.

'The tree is the key,

impart her earthly power.

The only way to win the fray

Wage war within the hour.

Use the knowledge of the past,

The battles long since won,

Or all Potential will be quashed.

An apocalypse will come.'

'Well. That was light hearted,' Faith stated.

'I especially liked the part about the apocalypse coming. That was real nice,' Gunn shook his head. 'Notice how it didn't say _the_ apocalypse? It said_ an_ apocalypse. Damn PTB aren't finished with us yet.'

'It would seem not,' Giles mused.

Buffy sighed. 'Okay, team. What do we think the first section's about?'

Faith grabbed the book and read it out.

'One among many

The first to unfold.

One among four,

Dark secrets she told.

One among billions,

The difference, his heart,

One from a council,

That was torn apart.' She grinned. 'Well I'm guessing that last part's either Giles or Wes. It means the Watchers Council, right?'

'Seems likely,' Anya agreed.

'I reckon the third part's Xander,' Willow added. 'I mean, 'The difference, his heart?'' She looked to the others for support. 'Like Andrew says – he's the heart of the slayer machine. Right?'

Xander smiled. 'I'd say so.'

'Well if we're saying that one parts about Giles – which I think is more likely than Wes - and the other's Xander, could we take a wild stab and say that Buffy and Willow are involved?' Dawn suggested. 'I mean, they are the core four.'

Fred frowned.' Yeah, that 'Dark secrets she told,' part, wouldn't that be referring to when Will went black eyed baddie?'

Willow nodded. 'Yeah, fits.'

'Well the 'one among many, first to unfold,' would be Buffy,' Spike said. 'As in, the first of the current slayers to get all chosen.'

'Okay, so part two is?' Wesley enquired.

'Hey, I think we deserve some kudos for coming up with that much!' Cordelia stated.

'Anyway, I think we should think about part three first,' Giles suggested. 'It refers to more people – we should work that out before we discuss the actual events about to come forth. 'The two that love the slayer so,

her guardian, her champion.

The one that starts the day anew,

The one that saw a millennium.

The spirits of warriors into these four shall go.

The strongest shall stay; the weakest, sent below,'' he recited from the book that Faith had passed him.

'Well, _I _reckon I get the first part. It's so Spike and Angel,' Faith determined.

'What?' The ex vampires yelped in unison.

'Oh come on, it's obvious. Her guardian _Angel._ And let's not forget who was wearing the amulet in the hellmouth? Her _champion_. Spike,' Andrew shrugged. 'It's textbook.'

'Yeah, well, shut up,' Angel mumbled.

'Buffy cleared her throat. 'Hold on. How do we know it's talking about me? It could be Faith, or Rhona or Vi…' she trailed off. The entire room was staring at her, looks of pity in place.

'It's you, Buff. And it's them,' Xander clarified.

'Fine. Well, what about the last two people?' Buffy pointed to the prophecy.

'The one who starts the day anew – that's gotta be Dawn,' Oz offered.

'What does _she_ do in the morning?' Harmony asked, frown upon her youthful face.

'It's her name, Harm. As in _Dawn_ of the day,' Vi said, hiding a smile.

'Oh. Got it!' Harmony beamed.

'Anyway…millennium girl's gotta be Anya,' Buffy continued as though Harmony had never spoken.

'Yeah, that tracks,' Clem agreed.

'So the part describing this fight thing? What about it?' Rhona asked.

Sophie took the book from Giles. 'Many great feats

these warriors did achieve,

and from their bodies

their spirits shall leave.

A great fight repeated,

This becomes its brother.

After their use,

They are forced into another,' she read out. 'Nasty.'

' I don't think there's much we can learn from this other than a fight we've already had will be repeated,' Giles took his glasses of to clean them. 'And our spirits will leave our bodies…wait a moment…' he put his glasses back on. 'our spirits shall leave our bodies to repeat a fight we've already had and then they will be forced into the other people! That's it!'

The group looked nonplussed.

'What's it, Giles? Share,' Willow demanded.

Giles stood up from his chair and began pacing. 'The person we will be fighting is going to strip Buffy, Willow, Xander and I of our souls, our spirits, if you will, leaving just our raw powers, and merge us together to create something like we did when we fought Adam. A great fight repeated.'

'A combination Buffy,' Xander added, mouth open. 'Without a soul to tell us what's right and wrong.'

'Then, after it's taken our raw powers, it will force our souls into Angel, Spike, Dawn and Anya,' Giles explained.

''The spirits of warriors into these four shall go.

The strongest shall stay; the weakest, sent below,'' Lorne shook his head. 'There'll be an internal fight for possession of the body…'

'And the one who loses goes to hell,' Cordelia finished. 'God…'

'What was the last verse?' Spike asked Sophie.

'Um…' she found her place in the prophecy. ''The tree is the key,

impart her earthly power.

The only way to win the fray

Wage war within the hour.

Use the knowledge of the past,

The battles long since won,

Or all Potential will be quashed.

An apocalypse will come.''

'The tree. Would that be Willow?' Oz asked.

'I would say so…it mentions imparting earthly power,' Angel commented. 'As in Wicca.'

'Yeah, sure, fine, but the next part says we have to 'wage war within the hour!'' Willow cried. 'We so don't have time for that!'

Ignoring her, Giles ploughed on. 'We have to take knowledge from the past. Like what?'

'Past battles, it said, right?' Gunn asked.

Fred nodded. 'Yep, so I'd say we have to take elements from all the fights we've been involved in and use 'em against this demon or whatever.'

'What fights? Sunnydale fights? L.A. fights? Or fights from history?' Anya asked. 'This is awfully vague.'

'I'm guessing the fight's we've all been involved in. Seven years on the Hellmouth and four in L.A. plus that incident with the Shacklaw demon here when Angel saved the school,' Buffy said, sighing. 'That's a lotta knowledge to use in one fight, Giles.'

'Well, we have a lot of work to do then,' Giles smiled at his slayer.

'Hey, has anyone else noticed that no-one's been pissy or crying for a while now?' Gunn asked.

'I guess that's 'cause we've started 'waging war.' What with all the research and stuff,' Dawn said.

'So what was it making people go schizo in the first place?' Harmony asked.

'My guess is, whoever we're up against had started a ritual to transfer our souls to the others,' Giles explained. 'That's why we were getting so angry all the time, and why Angel and the others were getting overly emotional.' He frowned. 'Too much soul all at once. And soon the rituals will be complete.'

'Well, like Gunn said – when we're researching – 'waging war' – we aren't affected,' Buffy said. 'So surely we're safe for now?'

'Yeah, B, but it said 'within the hour,' so surely if we stop for longer than that, you'll get all soulless. And they'll get all soulful,' Faith gestured at those mentioned in the latter part of the prophecy.

'Faith's right. We must keep working in shifts, never a moment's rest,' stated Giles.

'Guess we're in for a long night…' Xander rolled his eyes. 'What shall we start with, G-man?'

'Well we can start by going through the journals and then…'

Giles and the others continued their study, while Locar watched them from the stacks. He winced as he heard a burst of laughter from the anxious, but surprisingly, in their element, team.

Newarr was _not_ going to like this.

Locar's screams could be heard echoing out of the underground lair all night.

A/N: You can see I'm not a great poet…it was slightly William the bloody-esque. But please let me know what you think of the chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: See chapter one

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

A/N: Okay so I'm entering the main part of the story here and writing it is becoming increasingly more difficult, so feedback would be appreciated. Ten points to whoever guesses who the villain is.

* * *

**Chapter Four.**

'Buffy?' Giles softly shook her awake. 'Buffy?'

'I'm awake, I'm researching…' she opened her eyes and found herself to be sleeping on one of her diaries in the library.

'Buffy, your shift is over, let Sophie take care of it now.' The 7th year witch was standing just behind, smiling at her sleepy principle.

Buffy stood up and stretched, walking over to the espresso machine. They had been working on the prophecy for a day now – all normal classes had been suspended and a research rota had been implemented so that there was always at least a hundred people working at any given time. Buffy and Giles had decided this was the easiest way to make sure that they were constantly 'waging war.'

Giles joined her at the coffee machine and made himself one. 'There's a staff meeting in a few minutes, in Angel's office. We should go. You're supposed to be heading it.'

Nodding her agreement, Buffy headed up the nearest spiral staircase with her watcher.

As they reached Angel's large corner office, they saw that most of the staff were already gathered there, draped over chairs or sitting on the floor, exhausted.

Joining Fred on the floor, Buffy sat and waited for the last few people to trail in before beginning the meeting.

'Okay. Where are we, people?'

'Well, Angel and I have been reading the text more closely, and we were discussing the part before the prophecy, the part that indicated who will be affected,' Wesley commented from his position perched on the edge of a small two seater couch he was sharing with Cordelia, Anya and Dawn.

'What's the news there, then?'

'Well it mentions that it's your 'least likely foe' that you will be up against, for one,' Angel stated. 'Doesn't that give us a place to start?'

'Yeah, you're right. Will, Xander, you two go through the diaries and write a list of every big bad we've been up against that's at all … unlikely. Then we can go through it later,' Buffy commanded. Willow nodded.

'I've been researching the kind of ritual it would take to pull off this kinda trick, and I reckon the guy would have to be pretty close by,' Willow said, raising her eyebrows. 'As in less than a mile away. And it takes a special brotherhood…' she checked the notes she'd brought with her. 'The brotherhood of Fusengor. Plus there's gonna be a lotta noise. The Fusengor's are pretty vocal. Lots of loud chanting.' She smiled at the group. 'So it shouldn't be hard to track down.'

'Awesome. Gunn, Spike, Angel, can you go into the village and ask around, see if there's been any noise complaints? Lorne, Clem, can you stake out the countryside around here, see if there's any big caves or anything like that?'

They nodded in agreement.

'Take weapons,' Buffy instructed.

'What about the rest of us?' Cordelia asked.

'Well, Cordy, you, Fred and Harmony should go through the record of outstanding students that have graduated already, and the list of outstanding students still in school. We might need their help.' Buffy screwed her eyes up.

'Anya, go to the coven and see if they can help us out.' Buffy stood. 'I think that's all. Everyone else back to the library to research with the kids.'

Everyone filed out of the room with tasks to do, but Buffy held back, and grabbed Angel's arm when he tried to leave. 'Be careful,' she said, her eyes glazing over with tears.

'Buffy, what's wrong?' Angel looked at her closely.

'The last time something like this happened, most of my friends died.' She wiped away a tear that had fallen. 'And I'm the one supposed to be getting aggressive…'

'Buffy. We are much better prepared than when the First attacked you…and most of your friends came back, let's face it.' He smiled at the first woman he'd ever loved, and she smiled back.

'Just – be careful.'

He nodded and they walked out of the door.

Saying goodbye to Angel, Buffy ran down a corridor and caught up with Giles.

'Giles, wait, I need to talk to you!'

'What's wrong, Buffy?' he looked worried.

'I found something in my office this morning. Something demony. I trapped it – didn't kill it in case it was something to do with the looming humungo bad.'

'When you say 'found' do you mean –'

'I mean, it was hiding. It's tiny. Got wings. Sorta pinky-peach in colour. Kinda cute, which is unusual for a demon. It was watching me this morning.'

'Why didn't you mention before? Buffy!' he sighed at her incredulously.

'Aw c'mon, just come and see it.'

Following Buffy to her office, Giles took off his glasses and gave them a good polish before jamming them back on his nose.

'Alright, where is this beast?'

Buffy reached under her desk and pulled out a cardboard shoebox that was taped shut with little holes poked through the top for air.

'Oh very nice, Buffy,' Giles commented dryly. 'Going to give it a name and a collar next?'

Buffy ignored him, and, ripping off the tape, she opened the box. Inside was a conscious Urala Demon.

'Oh yes. It's a Urala Demon,' Giles confirmed. 'Mostly harmless. Generally kept as servants, not for hard labour or for fighting, simply for spying.'

'It's got big scratches all over it,' Buffy said, wrinkling her nose.

'Yes. Looks like it was tortured.'

'Ya think?'

xxxxx

Locar looked at the two humans as they conversed above him. Newarr was actually going to kill him this time.

xxxxx

'Okay, here's the list, Buffy,' Willow announced as she, Buffy, Xander, Giles, Angel and Spike sat down for their shift of research together in the library. 'We've got The Master, Angelus – sorry Angel – Drusilla, Spike – sorry Spike – Darla, the mayor, Adam, Glory, the trio, the first, Wolfram and Hart. And then moving on to less obvious, we have Amy Madison, Magnus Bryce, Caleb, the first slayer, Veruca, Jasmine, and Olaf, the troll. Not a great selection.'

'Well I think we can rule out me and Spike,' Angel said grumpily.

'The master's a dead demon. No way he's comin' back,' Buffy stated.

'What about Dru? We don't know if she's dead or not,' Spike offered.

'I would say no. The ones we know could still be alive are the likely ones. It's supposed to be unlikely,' Giles said. 'And I would rule out dead vampires. It's been shown that when they're brought back, they're ensouled.' He shared a glance with Angel.

'So that leaves us the mayor, Adam, Glory, The trio, The first, Wolfram and Hart, Amy, Magnus, Caleb, the first slayer, Veruca, and Jasmine,' Willow recited.

'Not narrowed it down much,' Xander sighed.

'Glory's dead. She can't come back,' stated Giles.

'Adam was destroyed, I saw to that,' Buffy said. 'Speaking of, so is Caleb. And the First told me he isn't coming back.'

'Wolfram and Hart haven't bothered us for five years, if they were planning an attack, they'd have done it by now,' Angel mused.

'The First is still buried in Sunnydale, isn't it? We set the mystical whatsits back in balance so it can't attack,' Spike said slowly.

'Veruca seems very unlikey, Willow,' Giles raised an eyebrow. 'She really shouldn't have been on that list.'

'Jasmine's definitely done, too,' Angel confirmed.

'Amy was never a particularly threatening witch, what could she do? We have students more powerful than her,' Buffy reasoned. 'Who's left?'

'The first slayer and the trio.'

'We haven't offended her royal firstness lately, why would she be attacking us?'

Xander enquired.

'Also, she'd just want you to be traditional, she wouldn't want to 'quash all potential,'' Giles added.

'So that leaved the trio,' Willow stated. 'Two of which are dead, one of which is on our side.'

'Are we sure?' Giles asked. 'Maybe we should have Lorne read him.'

'He's clean, Giles, trust me,' Buffy came to Andrew's defence. They'd become almost friends in the last five years.

'So we got no-one!' Willow wailed.

xxxxx

'Any news from the forest?' Buffy asked Lorne and Clem as they stomped into the entrance hall, where she'd been chatting to Harmony.

'Lotta noise coming over from the old Oracl Place,' Lorne confirmed.

'Oracl? The ruins? Thought you'd say that.' Buffy said.

'Yeah,' Clem replied, 'and we found some new carvings near the base of one of the old pillars.' He held up a small camera. 'We got shots.'

'Cool, get 'em developed at the lab, wouldya? Thanks,' Buffy smiled at the two demons. 'Angel, Gunn and Spike said the same thing.' She frowned, looking into the middle distance. 'But they didn't see any carvings, they were fighting a bunch of less pocket sized Uralas…' she turned her attention back to Lorne and Clem. 'We'll send a group to investigate tomorrow.'

Clem and Lorne nodded and walked toward the lab with their camera.

''kay, Harm, how's that list of students going?' Buffy asked.

'We have no available graduates, and five kids in school.'

'What? That's nothing!' Buffy yelped.

'Well, it turns out a lot of our better graduates are all caught up in apocalypses of their own. Plus, the kids here seem to be getting dumber and dumber…' Harmony trailed off.

'And coming from you, Harm, that is something,' Buffy said, shaking her head. 'Okay, what are the names of our kids in school?'

'Sophie Carmichael, Witch, 7th year, Jackson Lyte, Watcher, 6th year, Ally Locklear, Slayer, 7th year, Manny Jacobs, werewolf, 5th year, and Kevin Bearsley, Warlock, 5th year.'

'Well that sucks.' Buffy sighed. 'You really can't reach any graduates?'

'We tried but they're all tied up. Sorry, Buffy.'

'It's okay, Harm, we'd better just let these kids know that they're gonna be in this fight if they want…' Buffy was cut off by Harmony's excited shriek.

'Wait! I got one! A graduate! Raven Reibber, she's a witch, a pretty powerful one. Oh – and the slayer she's working with can come too…Layla Pedzotti.'

'Good. Good news. Tell them to get here as soon as possible.'

xxxxx

'The coven have got nothing, Buffy, their powers are blocked against whatever's controlling us,' Anya informed Buffy not much later that day.

'Crap,' Buffy said loudly. 'They were possibly essential.'

'They seriously cannot help us. Althenea's really sorry, they're trying to find out how to clear the way now. They're in the library with the rest of the slaves,' Anya said dryly.

'We'd better join them, I need to pull up some students and talk to them.'

They walked to the library together, where Anya grabbed a book and sat with Xander and Lorne, and Buffy got out her list and read out the names of the pupils she needed.

'Sophie Carmichael, Jackson Lyte, Ally Locklear, Manny Jacobs and Kevin Bearsley, come with me please.'

The five pupils rose from their seats and followed Buffy to her office, where they all sat in the available chairs. Buffy paced in front of them.

'You five are the best students in school right now.' Buffy exhaled deeply. 'and because of this coming apocalypse we might be shorthanded…I mean, it's always handy to be prepared, right? So we're recruiting you guys. If that's alright.'

'You want us to be scoobies?' Sophie asked slowly.

'Well…yeah.' Buffy shrugged. 'I guess.'

'Does that mean, saying we survive and all, that our battle would be covered in the Scooby history classes?' Jackson asked eagerly.

'Yeah, I suppose.' Buffy shrugged again. 'You guys game?'

'Game!' They replied in unison.

'Cool. Gimme a sec…' Buffy walked over to the phone on her desk, which she picked up and called Giles with. 'Giles? Yeah, hi. They said yeah. Start training them. Okay. Okay. See ya.'

'Hang on, Buffy,' Ally butted in. 'I though our education here _was_ training us.'

'Nah. This'll hurt more.' She laughed, seeing her pupil's stricken faces. 'I'm kidding! He's just gonna brief you on what you have to do.'

'Which is…' Kevin asked.

'For me to know, for you to find out,' Buffy smiled.

xxxxx

An hour later, Buffy was pacing again in the entrance hall with Angel and Spike nearby.

'Why aren't they here?' Buffy asked again.

Angel and Spike rolled their eyes at each other. They had been waiting there for the graduated witch and slayer to teleport here for ten minutes now and Buffy was getting agitated, a state easily reached in her angry spell induced mindset. She and Giles and the others had been much less agitated for the past day but the mood swings were starting up again, much to the displeasure of…well, everyone.

Suddenly, two women appeared in the hall, a trickle of dust accompanying them.

'Buffy!' They both cried.

'Hey, guys, come in, we have rooms ready for you…' Buffy led her former pupils to the elevators, unaware that yet another Urala was watching from the door.

xxxxx

'Okay, someone's gotta die for this. Where's Locar?' Newarr was fuming. The Urala had told him of Buffy's pre-battle preparations.

His visitor arrived by his side. 'He's not returned,' she said.

'Fine. Good. Excellent. Well, then, I'll wait 'til she comes to me. And then I'll trap her.' He turned to face her. 'I will complete this ritual. I will take their powers. Nothing they do will stop me.'

xxxxx

Buffy stepped into her office and collapsed onto a couch. She couldn't remember ever being this tired. She'd shown Raven and Layla to their rooms and briefed them on the prophecy. They were now working in the library with everyone else but Buffy had needed to get away from it all.

She thought about her newest recruits. Raven and Layla were both about Buffy's age, and had been too old to join the school when they'd been first called, so they'd gone through the three months of intensive training that they had set up before the school got running. Then they'd been sent out to face the world.

Raven was tall, with long dark hair and tanned skin, Layla was short with cropped red hair, and they'd been working together ever since they'd been paired up at the boot camp.

Buffy was snapped out of her reverie by Angel stepping into her office.

'Buffy. You okay?' he asked, concerned. 'You ran away after showing the girls to the library.'

'Yeah…sorry. It's just that…we aren't prepared!' she looked up at him imploringly. 'It's been too long since we've done this! I don't know how any more!' Buffy, for once, had succumbed to tears.

Angel sat next to her and scooped her up in his arms. 'Buffy, shhh. We can do this. You've been a slayer for 13 years. You can handle this.'

'I can't, I can't. Angel…it's too hard. Everything's falling apart.' Buffy gulped, burying her face in his chest. 'The last time I had to command troops, they threw me out.'

'Buffy, that was five years ago. They know how much they need you now.' Angel smoothed her hair. 'They knew it then. They need you, Buffy.' He inhaled deeply. '_I _need you,' he whispered.

Buffy sighed. She hadn't heard him.

'So we scope out the ruins tomorrow?' she asked him, yawning.

'Yeah. But don't worry about it. You haven't slept properly in days. Go to bed.'

Smiling at her Angel, Buffy untangled herself from their embrace and walked out of her office. 'Goodnight, Angel,' she called behind her.

'Goodnight, my love,' he replied quietly.

* * *

A/N: I found this chapter really hard to write, and I'm not completely pleased with it. Please let me know what you think.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews I've had so far! Sorry for the delay, I'm lacking inspiration lately. I know I said at the beginning that I didn't like the comics, but I have taken one element from them, so sorry for lacking in originality too.

* * *

**Chapter Five**

Buffy stood in the entrance hall the next day with Spike, Angel, Raven, Layla, Willow, Giles, Gunn and Faith. They were preparing to go to the Oracl Ruins to see who they were up against.

'Okay.' Buffy addressed the group. 'Whoever we're fighting is going to be very well protected, I'm betting, so we need to be on full alert. That means no bickering,' she glared at Spike and Angel, 'No joking around,' she looked pointedly at Faith and Gunn, 'and no rogue spells whizzing around.' She turned to willow and Raven.

'Hey!' Willow exclaimed. 'I haven't cast a rogue spell in a long time!'

'Don't mind her, Red, it's the bitchiness talking,' Spike reminded her.

'Yeah well, Spike, you forget I'm bitchy too these days.' Willow frowned.

'Shut up.' Buffy commanded. 'Let's go.'

As they all trooped out the large front doors, Faith whispered to Gunn 'We don't joke around too much, do we?'

Gunn raised an eyebrow at the slayer. 'Pull my finger?'

Laughing, they walked the fifteen minutes to the ruins, which were situated on a large mound, surrounded by hills, where they all crouched around the symbols carved into the rough stone.

'What is it?' Layla asked as she inserted an arrow into her crossbow. 'What does it mean?'

'If I'm not mistaken, it's a protection symbol. It means that the Brotherhood of Fusengor has indeed taken up residence here. Willow was right,' Giles said, peering at the symbols.

'Surely that's just signposting that they're doing spooky rituals here. Why would they want people to know?' Raven enquired.

'The ritual must be particularly sensitive. Raven, Willow, you will need to reverse the protection spells so that we can enter. The rest of us will have to fight off the army of Uralas coming our way,' Giles stated dryly.

'Oh shi…' Buffy sighed, as she turned and saw the two dozen large Uralas speeding toward them. 'Raven, Willow, get to a safe place not far away. We'll hold down the forte here!' She ordered. Willow and Raven ran to the next hill were they held hands and began chanting together.

The Uralas reached the group and battle ensued. Buffy was fighting three at once when suddenly the Uralas all froze, cracks appearing on them. With a loud crack! they collapsed into gooey corpses.

'What the hell just happened?' Faith exclaimed having got exploded Urala all over her.

'A little helping hand from our witches,' Angel yelled, from further down the hill. A Urala corpse was on top him.

'Yeah, and the symbols are gone,' Spike chirped happily. 'We won!'

Buffy stood up from where she'd fallen. Turning round, she realised she'd fallen into the entrance of the cave. 'Oh, I don't think we've won yet, Spike.' She turned to face her crew. 'In here, guys. This place is massive.'

They quietly walked down the entrance stairs and grouped together behind a colossal column, from which they could see the whole cavernous lair.

'Bloody hell,' Spike exhaled.

At the top of the hall, on the large blood red throne, sat Newarr.

'Who's that?' Faith asked.

'Kinda what we're trying to find out, Faith,' Buffy said through gritted teeth. 'Anyway, I think it's 'what's that' that you mean.'

'I'm not sure,' Giles said. 'It's human in size,' he began, before being cut off.

'So are Clem and Lorne. Hello? Demons,' Buffy whispered.

'I was going to make a comment about the same number of limbs too but I suppose you'd just yell that Clem and Lorne do too?' Giles spat at Buffy.

'Well they do! That,' Buffy pointed to Newarr, 'is a big-ass demon.'

'Shhh!' Willow demanded of the bickering slayer and watcher. 'And look over here!'

The gang followed her gaze to a side chamber they hadn't noticed before. There were large cages along one side of the room and there was a circle of robed figures in the middle, grouped around a fire which they were throwing unidentifiable objects into.

'So that'll be the non-chanty part of the ritual?' Raven asked.

'Seems so,' Giles agreed.

Suddenly, Newarr yelled something to one of his Minions and the whole group jumped in surprise. They watched as a girl walked to Newarr and kissed him.

'Can i just say 'euughh,'' Buffy said, while the others shuddered.

'Hang on…' Willow said, frowning.

'What?' Raven prompted her.

'Isn't that..?' Willow trailed off again, squinting at the girl.

'Amy Madison?' Buffy gasped.

'Bloody hell,' Giles sputtered.

'Um…who?' Spike asked, while Faith, Gunn, Angel, Layla and Raven all looked confused behind him.

xxxxx

'Amy's a witch, from Sunnydale. She went to school with us. We haven't seen her for…ooh, six years,' Buffy informed the rest of the group as they walked back to the school.

'So what's the big problem? She evil?' Raven asked.

'Not _evil_, the last time we saw her…' Buffy frowned.

'I wouldn't say that,' Willow said vehemently. 'She's a total psychopath. She hates me.'

'Why?' asked Layla.

'Jealous of her power,' Giles shrugged. 'I suppose now she's helping whoever _that_ was, to overthrow us.'

'Bit petty, don't you think?' Spike raised an eyebrow.

'Amy is petty. Always has been. Especially to me,' Willow pouted.

'Well there was that time you didn't stop her being a rat for three years,' Buffy said.

'Yeah, well…her fault, not mine.'

xxxxx

'We're ho-ome!' Buffy called when they opened the front doors. She stopped abruptly.

'What the-' Giles faltered.

There was a scene of devastation in front of them.

Blood was spattered on the walls. There were bodies everywhere; Harmony lay unconscious against a wall.

Buffy walked wide eyed through the entrance hall, avoiding bodies, and pushed open the lunch hall doors.

Inside, there was more blood. More bodies. She raised a hand to her mouth.

'Buffy?' a voice cried weakly.

'Anya!' Buffy called. 'Where are you? What happened?'

'Over here…'

Buffy ran to her side. 'Are you okay?'

'I'm alright, just…bruised, I think.' She helped Anya to her feet.

'What happened, Ahn?'

Just then, the rest of the crew that had accompanied Buffy to the ruins walked into the hall, and immediately rushed over to Buffy.

'Demons…lots. They stormed us. I don't think anyone was…killed, but…I don't remember...' she trailed off.

'It's okay, Ahn, let's get you to the kitchens, we'll get you cleaned up.' Buffy helped her over to the kitchens, where she found Clem, unconscious on the ground. Xander was next to him and Lorne lay, his leg twisted at an unnatural angle, on the worktops.

'My God…' Willow gasped, stepping into the room.

Buffy instructed Faith, Gunn, Willow, Giles, Raven, Layla, Spike and Angel to go round the school and see where else there had been attacks, while she tended to the wounds of those in the kitchen.

When he came to, Xander helped her. No-one in the kitchen had been seriously hurt; Lorne had been able to snap his leg back into place with no trouble, and they went through to the lunch hall to search for hurt people.

The people strewn around the school were all beginning to regain consciousness. Everyone gathered in the library, which, thanks to a quick protection spell by Kit, had remained the only place on the ground floor that hadn't been breached. The hundred or so students in the library at the time had remained safe.

There had been three deaths so far. One 6th year watcher, one 3rd year witch and a 1st year slayer. They were still finding more bodies.

xxxxx

Buffy sat silently in the library, much later.

Seven students had died that day. Forty were injured. Andrew was in a coma.

And she hadn't been there. She'd abandoned them all.

She began to cry in earnest, her sobs easily heard through the large room.

Angel entered the room, and immediately headed for Buffy.

'Buffy.'

'Angel, no, don't…'

'Don't what?' Angel sat next to her.

'Don't tell me this isn't my fault!'

'Buffy-' he began.

'I left the school and I took the best fighters with me. I left them totally unprotected and now seven kids are dead! Two of them only started a week ago. Oh God, their parents…'

'Their parents knew what they were letting themselves in for. And Buffy, this isn't your fault. You weren't to know,' he assured her, brushing hair out of her tear tracked face.

Buffy had no response. Once again, she collapsed into his arms, sobbing.

Far behind them, Spike walked into the room, and seeing Buffy and Angel, he stopped in his tracks. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but didn't.

Something in his shocked expression lessened, his cerulean blue eyes softened.

Smiling sadly, he walked back out of the room, eyes to the ground.

He crashed into someone, sending books tumbling to the ground.

'Spike!'

'Raven…sorry,' he said, helping her pick up the books.

'You okay?' she asked, concern on her pretty face.

'Yeah.' He made to walk off.

'You wanna get some hot chocolate?' she asked his retreating back.

He stopped. Memories flashing through his head, her smiled a little. 'Sure. Marshmallows?'

'Always,' she agreed.

They walked toward the cafeteria, where Clem was working tirelessly to clean up the mess left by the fight.

'So…how is everyone?' Raven asked him.

'Andrew's still out. The kids that didn't make it are in Giles' classroom, so the parents don't have to traipse all over the school to get them.' He sighed. 'God. So many kids are injured. They're all being treated by the coven right now. Hopefully they'll be all right by morning.' They had reached the cafeteria. Pushing open the door, Spike waited for Raven to walk in before him. Surprised at his own chivalry, he chuckled bitterly.

The cafeteria was filled with students that were either not on their library shift or that hadn't been hurt.

Raven went to make their hot chocolates while Spike secured a table.

Clem watched the peroxide warrior as he scrubbed the walls of the long clean cafeteria. Maybe Spike was better suited to Raven than Buffy, he thought. Shrugging inwardly, he looked around at the gleaming lunch hall, and went through to the entrance hall, which he'd finished cleaning first. He went over to Harmony, who was straightening her desk.

'Harmony?' He called. She was good for gossip.

'Yeah Clemmy?' she answered, smiling, before wincing. Her face had been bruised during the fight, and was still hurting her.

'What do you think of Spike and Raven?'

Her face brightened.

'Ooh...'

xxxxx

Newarr reclined in his throne.

'How many dead?' he asked a Urala that had been part of the invading army on the school.

'Oh, at least fifty,' the demon assured him guiltily.

'Excellent. That'll show Buffy. She shouldn't bother fighting me. I'm going to win. I'm going to use her skills, and let her die.' He grinned at the girl by his side, 'Right, Amy?'

'Right baby. They'll never see you coming,' she smiled widely. 'Warren.'

* * *

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

A/N: I'm trying to update more quickly these days so keep an eye out for more chapters to come. I hope you're enjoying it, and please keep reviewing!

* * *

**Chapter Six**

Buffy sat, head in her hands, trying to block out the noise around her.

'I never knew this school was so lax in security!'

'I will be withdrawing my child immediately!'

'Killed by invading demons? This is ridiculous!'

She was in her office, behind her desk. The room was filled with parents, some of whom had lost children in the fight, some of whom wished to take their child out of the 'dangerous establishment.'

'Please, listen to me…' she tried calming the parents. 'Listen!'

The shouting ceased and all the parents turned to face her, shocked expressions on their faces.

'I am so sorry for your losses,' she began shakily. 'But this is a school training children to defend themselves against things like this. If you take them out of the school, they will be in more danger than ever.'

'Not if we keep them away from it altogether!' shouted one irate woman.

'No. Your children are attuned to mysticism now. Chances are it will follow them wherever they go.'

'My son told me you weren't even at school when they were attacked,' a man spat at Buffy.

'That's why my son died? Because you were on vacation?' a tear stained woman cried.

'No! I … I wasn't here, yes, but there was most of the staff here and…'

'Ah, but they aren't the famed slayer, protector and principle, are they?'

'No, but…'

'You told us when we entered our children into this school that they'd be safe.'

'People are never safe! People get hurt everywhere! At least here they're being trained to fight against it! We are in the middle of an apocalypse here! And I wasn't on vacation; I was trying to find out what wants all your children dead! I apologise for what's happened but it is not my fault!' Buffy exclaimed, growing angry. Her mood swings had been increasing again.

One brave parent spoke up again. 'I thought it was your job to stop apocalypses. Not to let them happen around you.'

Buffy widened her eyes and turned on the parent. 'You think I want this to happen? You think I haven't spent the last thirteen years wishing this was someone else's job? Well, I saw the slayer that was called after me, after I died the _first_ time. I knew her, and you know how long she lasted? A year. A _year_. I can do this job. I can and I _will_, but you need to_ let_ me. The school needs your children. They are the future of this school, of the world! In less than seven years, this will be their job!'

As the brave parent opened his mouth to respond again, Buffy punched him in the mouth and stormed out of her office. She was not aware of where she was going, but found herself outside Giles' office. Knocking quietly, she let herself in.

'Hey Giles,' she said, walking to his desk and sitting opposite him.

He looked up from the tiny Urala demon that Buffy had found previously. He'd been interrogating it.

'Hello Buffy. I thought you were speaking to the bereaved parents today?'

'Yeah. Yes. It…didn't go well, Giles.'

'How not well are we talking here?' he raised an eyebrow quizzically.

'I punched one?' she said sheepishly.

'Buffy!' Giles reprimanded her. 'Oh, to be honest, I'm not even surprised…'

'Whatcha up to?' Buffy asked, prodding the Urala.

'Talking to this,' Giles said. 'Apparently he works for 'the Mighty Newarr,' who is indeed the man we saw in the cave.'

'What's your name, little guy?' Buffy asked the demon.

'Why must we know that, Buffy?'

'It's polite. We know Clem and Lorne's names!'

'They fight on our side!' Giles sighed.

'Yeah, well, maybe we can get little Urely on our side.'

'Urala,' Giles corrected her automatically.

Buffy rolled her eyes and looked questioningly at the Urala.

'Locar,' he mumbled sadly.

'Aww, listen to his little voice! He's upset!' Buffy cooed. 'Hey, Locar, would you like to join our side? We have cookies! …or whatever it is you like to eat. By the way, if you do join our side, it won't be humans.'

'I eat anything. I am a lowly servant to the Mighty One.'

'Who is this Mighty guy, Locar?' Buffy asked him.

'Newarr. He is a genius.'

'How is he a genius, Locar? Has he faced us before? Faced me? We can't remember him!' Buffy questioned him again.

'He is a genius with the magicks of technology. He has faced you before. He talks endlessly about the 'black haired _bitch_.''

'Black haired bitch…Cordelia?' Buffy suggested.

Giles' eyes widened. 'Master of technology, Buffy!'

'Huh? Oh!' Buffy yelped in surprise. 'Warren! He means Willow!'

xxxxx

'Okay, people. We are going to the lair and we are going to kill the brotherhood. They are evil. As is the guy they serve. It has to be done,' Buffy announced to the packed Cafeteria, some time later.

'What!?' Anya yelped. She wasn't the only one.

'Yep. All the staff are coming. You children will be left totally unguarded. And I want to see some _action_ this time! When the school was attacked yesterday, you just sat around waiting to be killed! Cast spells, fight, protect each other! Think of this as an exam. If you live, then you pass with an A. Guys, we are training you for circumstances like there were here, yesterday! You are going to have to learn to _know_ them, to know how to keep yourself safe, because otherwise you're going to die just as soon as you walk out of those big white front doors. You have to be _tested._ This is _not_ a textbook school. So. Can you do it? Can you protect yourselves, your friends, and your school? Or has everything we've taught you been for nothing?' Buffy looked out at her school.

Suddenly, Giles started clapping. Angel followed, and soon the whole school was applauding her. there were cries of 'we'll do it!' and 'we can fight!' from the students. Buffy stepped down from the podium and straightened her outfit. Willow was nearby, and leaned in to whisper 'You're doing the right thing, you know.'

Buffy chuckled. 'Yeah but that speech? Nowhere near as good as the one I gave before we fought the First.'

xxxxx

'We're here,' Spike whispered to the rest of the group, which consisted of every member of staff in the school, including Harmony, Kit, Layla, Raven, Andrew, who had woken from his coma that morning, and Clem, as they reached the entrance to the cave.

'Okay. Listen carefully,' Buffy whispered. 'We go in, we disable the brotherhood, and we get out. Let's not try to take on Warren yet 'til we know what he's capable of.'

The group crept down the stairs and into the cavern.

One by one they tip-toed to the side chamber that the Brotherhood were occupying.

Buffy took her place at the head of the group, Angel and Spike either side of her, the rest of the staff behind. Raising her crossbow, she cocked her head as she address the room.

'I'm not interrupting anything, am I?'

The brothers rose to their feet and turned to face her. 'You know not what you do, little girl.'

'Oh, come on. Chanting, burning stuff all day…must get boring. Let's shake it up!'

Reminiscent of the Master all those years before, one of the brothers spoke; 'Oh good, the feeble banter portion of the-'

He was cut off as an arrow flew into his throat.

'Nah. I'm done talking.'

Buffy launched herself at the Brotherhood, followed by her staff. Willow and Raven were disabling the Brotherhood's incantations while Kit was bewitching the weapons hanging from the walls to fly into the Brothers' faces, stomachs and chests. Xander was holding down a Monk while Anya and Andrew punched him wildly. Giles was fighting one single-handedly, dodging the Monks' blows where he could. Faith was screaming like a banshee as she hacked away at the brotherhood with a dagger she'd torn out of the chest of a Monk that Kit had taken care of. Oz and Cordelia were fighting the same Brother, while Dawn and Fred had grabbed swords from the wall and were slashing one of the Monks to ribbons. Spike, Layla and Angel were swiftly disabling the members of the Brotherhood that had stayed out of the fray, while Lorne and Clem held down a Monk for Harmony to beat up. Rhona, Vi and Wesley were guarding the exit and preventing any fleeing Monks from escaping.

As Buffy moved around the room, stabbing, punching, kicking, flipping where she could, she couldn't help but remember her graduation day. All her friends working with her to defeat the Big Bad. Although, granted, this time it was some unnaturally strong Monks, not a giant snake, but there they all were. Fighting for the cause.

And they weren't just her friends anymore. They were her family.

Her huge, dysfunctional, part demon family. She smiled as Faith plunged her dagger into the last standing Monk, and watched as he fell to the ground.

'A successful massacre, people. Prepare to watch the spell be lifted!' she laughed.

'It's not often killing a bunch of Monks will feel make you feel so good,' Xander commented, wiping greyish blood off his hands. 'And, on a unrelated topic, those Monks certainly weren't human.'

Most of the group smiled and nodded at his comment, while Willow slowly raised a hand to her mouth.

'Will, what? What's wrong?' Buffy asked, concerned.

'The Brotherhood of Fusengor…They're human. We – we killed the wrong…'

'The wrong people?' Faith finished for her. 'What? How?'

'Because you're easily fooled,' a new voice called out to them. They turned in time to see Warren enter the room.

'I mean, come on! You saw them before, didn't you? Come on, you guys used to be sharp!' he walked closer to them all. 'Although you've been going downhill for a while. Remember that time you thought you killed me?' He smirked. 'Bet you're wondering how I got outta that one, huh, witch?' He span to face Willow. 'A little help from my friend…and yours. I believe you know Amy?'

'How did she…?' Willow started. She couldn't stop staring at the skinless monster she'd created all those years ago.

'Clever little disappearing trick, just after you flayed me. Kept me alive with magic…imbued me with strength, resilience…_and _she loves me, even without my skin.' He winked at Xander. 'Charm never fails, huh, friend? Speaking of friends…Andrew! Nice to see ya! You fight on their side now? What a waste.'

Neither Xander nor Andrew responded, so Buffy spoke up.

'Who have we just killed?'

'Not important right now,' Warren waved away her question. 'What's important is that I have you trapped. And I still have my fully functioning Brotherhood right behind me, to stop you trying to weasel your way outta here.' Warren clapped his hands once, and about twenty-five large Uralas charged into the room. 'Take 'em all, boys. I didn't realise there'd be so many of ya. You guys _that_ threatened by little old me?'

The Uralas grabbed them and forced them without much effort into the cages lining the wall, locking the doors behind them.

'Those are mystical locks, my friends, so no hope of breaking out, even with your teeny weeny superpowers, Buff. Hey, aren't you guys wondering why I was calling myself Newarr?'

'Can't say I cared enough to wonder, Warren,' Buffy spat venomously, from her position wedged between Angel and Wesley.

'It's an anagram of Warren. Smart, huh?' He smiled as he turned to leave the room.

'I'll leave that thought with you as you stay here all night until the ritual commences tomorrow. And I see you've brought _every_ member of staff, Buffy? That means there's no-one to rescue you. I'll leave_ that_ thought with you too.'

Buffy looked at her friends. They would all know, very soon, if that was true.

* * *

A/N: Hope you enjoyed, please review!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

A/N: Sorry for not updating for ages. I've been busy with rehearsals for my school show, but now that that's all over with, I'll have more time to update. Thank you for all your lovely reviews, keep 'em coming! Hope you're still enjoying Potential.

* * *

**Chapter 7**

'Good morning, family!' Warren cried joyfully as he entered the chamber the next morning. 'How are we all doing?'

The staff looked up him through the bars in their cages.

'Huh, not so good?' Warren shrugged indifferently. 'I'm feeling great! By this time tomorrow I'm going to have a combination of four of the greatest warriors in history doing my bidding. And, of course, then there's the extra pleasure of watching your souls battle for possession of the body.' He grinned. 'I wonder whose will go to hell. In fact, I wonder into whose body you'll all go?' He regarded Buffy. 'Think you'll go into Angel's?'

Spike frowned, before shaking the expression off.

'Or will you go into Dawn's? Because I bet she'd be the one to go to hell in _that _scenario. And then you'd have to spend the rest of your life inside your sister's body, knowing you sent her to hell.' He smirked. 'Tough break.'

'Are you going to kill us already or are you just going to talk us to death?' Giles snapped.

'Temper, temper, Rupert. You're not going to die today. Your soul might go to hell, I guess, but your mind? Your skills? They'll be mine forever, and I'll keep them inside Buffy's body, along with Willow's magic and Xander's…you know, I never really worked out what you did that was so special. But you were part of the prophecy, so I thought 'hey!' go with it.' He frowned. 'I'm not sure what'll happen to your body when it's all empty. I guess it'll rot. How weird would that be though? If you went into, say, Anya's body, and your soul won the battle. Then you'd see your own shrivelled corpse through her eyes.' Warren chuckled. 'Sorry, folks. Got carried away. I'm gonna leave ya now. I got better things to do than hang with you guys all day.' He turned to stride out of the door, his black robes that covered his bloody walking corpse flowing behind him. 'And, just so you know, the brotherhood is doing the rest of the prep work someplace else, so you can't disarm them or whatever. Seeya!'

He exited, and Buffy turned to her friends inside the cage.

'Will, is there anything you can do to break us outta here?'

Willow looked terrible. Her hair was standing almost on end and her eyes had taken on a manic, almost electrified look. 'Buffy, I've tried, but I'm sorry. The cage is turning my magic against me!'

Cordelia nodded knowingly. 'Yeah, she's right. Look at her hair. Now _that's _evil.'

Glaring at her, Buffy reached for the bars of the cage again and tried bending them.

Gasping from the effort, she stumbled back. 'That's…that's not gonna work,' she gulped. 'Ow!'

'I'm sorry to be so negative, but does anyone else see us ever actually getting out of here?' Vi asked the group tentatively. 'I mean, Warren was right last night. We haven't got any back up plan, and we haven't got more staff coming to rescue us. What can we do?'

Buffy shared a look with Giles. 'We can hope.'

xxxxx

All seven grades of Potential were gathered in the Cafeteria. Most were helping themselves to food from the kitchens, whilst many still had their noses in books, trying to find out something, anything, that might keep them safe or stop the apocalypse.

Ally, Jackson, Sophie, Manny and Kevin, the five students chosen by Buffy, sat huddled in a corner, going over their instructions.

'So how long do we have to wait?' Jackson whispered to Sophie.

'Jackson! Giles told us all this! Twenty-four hours before we go in, fully armed.'

'Why not now? They aren't back, they need us!' Manny exclaimed quietly.

Sophie and Ally shared a look. 'Kevin, you get it, don't you?' Sophie asked her fellow wicca.

'I do,' Kevin whispered. 'Guys, the other students don't know Buffy has given us this job. Not even the other teachers know, apart from Mr Giles. We can't just rush out; we have to wait 'til nightfall.'

'Yeah so all the vamps lurking around can storm us!' hot-headed Manny huffed again.

'They wont, Kevin and I will take care of that with our protection spell. Warren and his minions won't even know we're there,' Sophie said calmly.

'God…it's weird that it's Warren isn't it? I mean, after learning all about him in Scooby History Class…the fact that someone who they all thought had been dead for six years is back and is bringing the apocalypse? Freaky,' Ally sighed.

Manny whipped his head up. 'I haven't done Warren yet in Scooby history, I'm only in 5th year…we're still on Glory. What happened with Warren?'

'Well he was your standard variety geek, until he teamed up with Andrew and a guy called Jonathan and tried to take over Sunnydale. Buffy pretty much foiled every plan they had, but Warren tried to kill Buffy at one point, and the bullet hit Tara.' Sophie explained.

'My God…that's why Tara isn't here…I always figured she didn't make it through her brain sucked period…' Manny exhaled.

'You haven't gotten onto the final battle with Glory yet?' Kevin asked.

'Nah,' Manny confirmed.

'It's a humdinger,' Ally stated.

'Really? What happens?'

'Guys, enough! We have to decide what we're going to do when we go and rescue the staff!'

xxxxx

'So we're going to rescue the staff then?' A third year boy called Max asked the students gathered around the small table they occupied in the cafeteria, not far away from the older students Buffy had chosen to help.

'We have to! They haven't been back for hours, and no-one else seems to care!' another third year boy called Elijah insisted.

His twin sister Eva disagreed. 'We don't know that. Plus, the oldest kid here is Max, and he's only in third year, like me and Elijah. The rest of you are only in first and second!'

'Buffy started fighting when she was fifteen!' A second year girl called Jenna whispered.

'Yeah, which is two years older than us!' Eva's best friend, Fiona, folded her arms.

'What about Harry Potter? He was eleven!' A little first year boy called Dermot suggested, hugging his Harry Potter book.

Eva snatched the book from him and tapped him hard on the head with it. 'Hello? Fiction! This is real life!'

'Doesn't seem like it,' mumbled a first year girl called Emily.

'What?' Eva snapped, earning a nudge from her much more tolerant brother.

Does it not seem crazy to you that less than a year ago I was just a normal kid with no superpowers?'

'You were never a normal kid,' Elijah stated. 'You've always been a slayer. You just didn't know.'

Emily frowned. 'Okay, so slayers are called. What about witches and warlocks? You guys aren't chosen. Are you?'

'We aren't chosen, but the coven seeks us out because we're likely to be proficient. But you, a slayer, you're a definite. You have to dedicate your life to slaying,'

Elijah said, his mouth full of crisps from the bowl in front of him.

'Thanks. That lightened the mood,' Emily said dryly.

'Anyway!' Eva slammed her fist on the table and commanded attention back to her. 'What are we going to do about the staff?'

xxxxx

'Is there any way…any way at all that we are ever going to get outta here?' Xander exclaimed, around about the same time the students were plotting their rescues back at the school.

'Tell ya what, Harris, why don't you come up with a frickin' plan?' Anya snapped.

Dawn sighed. 'Could you two please stop bickering!'

Anya and Xander looked at each other. 'We only bicker because we can't have sex here.'

Xander raised an eyebrow.

'That's what we do in an apocalypse, honey, remember?' Anya beamed.

Xander nodded in understanding. 'Oh yeah. The last time we…right. Just before the apocalypse.' He frowned again, and looked at Buffy. 'How come I only ever get girls when I'm about to die?'

'Just shows ya what a catch you are, Whelp.' Spike smiled at Xander, who almost smiled back.

Willow groaned. She was slumped on the floor of the cage, her head resting on Oz's shoulder, her hair slightly less frazzled as it had been. 'I'm so tired. And sore. And I think I'm electrically charged.'

Gunn choked.

'Gunn, you okay?' Buffy asked, tiredly concerned.

'Yep, just…swallowed my tongue…'

'I knew a girl whose body was electrically charged…' Angel muttered. 'Gwen. I bet she woulda helped us…'

Buffy looked at Angel. 'Her body was electrically charged? For real?'

'Yeah. She was a total skank, though,' Fred wrinkled her nose.

'When you say skank, do you mean like me, ten years ago?' Faith asked, half smiling.

Angel chuckled. 'She couldn't touch anything without gloves.'

'Anything? Even people?' Andrew asked, rubbing his eyes.

'So she never…?' Anya asked.

Gunn choked again.

'Are you sure you're okay, pumpkin?' Lorne asked.

'Oh my God…' Fred said under her breath.

'What?' Faith asked, eyebrow raised.

'Nothing,' Fred said, smiling, leaning into Wesley.

'Gunn stared at her and half grimaced, half smiled at his old lover.

'What in the frilly heck is goin' on?' Willow wailed. 'There are twenty-two of us stuck in a big impenetrable cage with no outside help coming inside for us, and we're talking about some electro-girl from years past!' She exhaled deeply. 'We need a plan!'

Warren ambled in. 'Saying your goodbyes, my little prisoners? It'd be a good idea. You're not gonna be around much longer.'

xxxxx

'I think he's right.' Willow stated, after Warren had left again. 'I think we should say goodbye.'

'Guy's, I don't think - ' Buffy began, sharing a warning glance with Giles. They knew, they hoped, there would be no need to say goodbye, that they'd be rescued. But none of the others did, and they couldn't be told, there would be a chance that Warren would hear.

'You're right, Will,' Xander agreed. 'And I'm gonna go first.' He inhaled sharply. 'I still love you, Anya. More than anything.'

'That's not so much a goodbye as a confession, but whatever…' Willow muttered.

'I love you too, Xander!' Anya cried, hugging him. 'Even though you can be such a child, I love you.'

'I love Fred.' Wesley admitted, standing up. 'I always have.'

'We know,' Gunn chuckled. 'We always have.'

'What?' Wesley gasped. 'Even you, Fred?'

'Um…yes. But don't worry…I think I love you too.' She smiled up at him.

'I love all you guys so much!' Andrew wailed.

Everyone looked at him. 'Andrew, hush,' Buffy reprimanded.

'Yeah, there's been so much Unresolved Sexual Tension in that school for so damn long there's gonna be lot of bloody confessions,' Spike said mildly.

'Well, I still love Willow…but then I always have,' Oz stated.

'I know. And I still love you. But…' Willow struggled for words.

'I know. Timing.' He nodded.

'It's been so long. We need to find out what we really mean to each other before we can have a relationship again.'

'I know.' He smiled sadly. 'I know.'

'If we ever get out…'

'I'll be waiting. Even if we don't get out. I love you.'

Buffy smiled. She had known it would only be a matter of time before these revelations had come to a head.

'I love you, Buffy.' She whipped her head up. The words had come from two different places, in two different accents. The two that uttered them were now facing each other, frowns upon faces, upset at the other for ruining the moment of revelation.

'What I was goin' to say, before Peaches interrupted me,' Spike began again, 'Is that I love you, and I always will. But it's not our time anymore. I know that. And I know someone else who I don't love…not yet, but I'd like if we could go out.' He frowned. 'Not that we'll be able to if we can't get out of this bloody cage.'

Everyone stared at him.

'What?' He asked, confused.

'You never said who it was, dumbass!' Harmony shrieked.

'Oh. Right. It was Raven.' He turned to her. 'Whaddya think, pet?'

'She stared up him, before breaking into a smile. 'I think yes.'

They embraced fiercely, with Angel looking on disgustedly and Buffy quietly happy for the two. Angel turned to Buffy, a serious look on his face.

'Well_ I_ was going to say that I loved you, and that there's nothing stopping me taking care of you forever anymore. I want to be the man you wake up to, and go to sleep with. To spar with, and fight side by side with. We could walk in the sunshine. We wouldn't be confined to the shadows anymore. You were just a kid when we met, and even though I was over two centuries old, I've lived a fuller life in the past thirteen years than I ever have before, and it's all because of you. Is there any way you could love me now? After all this time?'

Buffy looked up at the first man she'd ever loved, and realised that he was the _only _man she'd ever loved.

'Do I really need to answer that question?' she whispered, before drawing him in for a kiss.

The crowd around them began to cheer, and for a brief, shining moment, they weren't locked in a cage by a sadistic skinless enemy. They were in the happiest place they'd ever been, surrounded by friends and love, forever.

'What's the happy?' Warren's voice shattered the illusion, and they broke apart.

xxxxx

'This is such a bad idea…' Eva whispered as they snuck out the front door of the school that night, and inched their way along the driveway to the huge gates.

'Shh, Eva, it's fine. Everyone's got weapons, and we can use them,' Elijah assured his sister.

Fiona crept up behind Eva and whispered 'I'm with you!'

They made their way out of the gates and began to walk toward the hills where they were sure the ruins were.

Back at the school, the older students had all stepped into Buffy's office where they knew they wouldn't be interrupted, while Kevin and Sophie prepared a mass teleportation spell.

'Everyone got their weapons?' Sophie asked, calmly.

'Yeah, all present and correct,' Manny checked.

'Then let's go.'

Suddenly they were spinning wildly in a shower of sparks, all five of them yelling and trying to hold onto each other for safety, when as suddenly as it had begun, the rollercoaster ride ended. They tumbled to the ground. Ally stood first, and checked her surroundings.

'We're just outside the cave. And we have company.'

She pointed into the distance, and in the dim light, the others could just make out the forms of a group of children, whom they recognised as fellow pupils.

'Crap!' Sophie whispered.

* * *

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please review!!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

A/N: Again, there's been a big gap between my updates – sorry.

Please keep reviewing – This is my first big fanfiction that I've come close to finishing, but I need all the encouragement I can get!

* * *

**Chapter 8**

The younger students froze.

'Did you see that?' Emily whispered frantically to the others.

'The big fizzing shower of sparks up there? Funnily enough we did,' Eva snapped.

'What do we do, what do we do?!' Jenna panicked.

'Guys, calm down – I think they're students!' Max squinted into the distance. 'It's Sophie!'

The children ran over to the older students, who were standing slumped, pained expressions on their faces.

'What are you doing here?' Jackson hissed.

'We came to help the staff!' Dermot squealed.

'Shhhh!' Ally demanded. 'Why? Why would you do that? You guys are only in like – second year!'

'Third, actually!' Eva frowned.

'That doesn't matter!' Sophie stated. 'You don't need to be here. We've been chosen and briefed on what to do here, you guys can go back home.'

'But we have a plan!' Fiona insisted.

'And weapons!' Jenna agreed.

Ally frowned. 'Plan?' She raised an eyebrow. 'Let's hear it.'

'We go in…and we save the staff,' Emily sighed. 'It's not really a plan, more a total lack of common sense.'

'You got that right. Look, just go back to the school; we've got it covered here!' Jackson insisted.

Before any of the youngsters could open their mouths to complain, Manny interjected.

'Wait guys – they could help us. We just need a plan.'

'Well we can't discuss anything here, we're too near the entrance,' Ally pointed out. 'Let's go over that next hill.'

The rest of the group nodded their agreement and they began trekking their way over the hill and hunching down so they'd be totally hidden.

'So what's this fabled plan then?' Eva asked.

'Well, we still need to discuss whether or not you kids should be here…' Kevin said, looking daggers at Manny.

'We don't have time for that, Kev.' Sophie said, resignedly. 'They stay.'

The kids all beamed.

'I think the younger kids should go in first, scope out the lay of the place. See where the staff are. And then report back to us,' Jackson suggested.

'Hello? They're going to have guards on the doors!' Eva said scathingly to Jackson. He turned, startled at being berated by a third year.

'_I _think you older guys should go in first, distract the guards, and then we'll sneak in and do what Jackson said,' she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

'Whatever,' Jackson said, nose wrinkled in annoyance.

'That's a good plan, Eva, we'll do that,' Sophie said, smiling at her. 'After you guys have some info on the staff, you come back out and help us finish off the guards, if we haven't done so already.

'Okay. What then?' Kevin asked.

'Then…' Sophie trailed off.

'Then we all go in, and use a combination of weapons and magic to get the staff out of whatever bind they're in,' Ally stated.

'Guys, you do know this might possibly be a fight to the death?' Sophie said, looking at her companions.

They looked back at her. 'What are you saying?' Jenna said.

'I'm saying, leave now if you have a jelly belly. We might not all get out alive. Ally and I are the only people here in 7th year – we've covered almost all of the Big Bads Buffy had to face and to be honest; I don't know how she did it. There's a chance we'll all die.'

'First off, Buffy died. Twice. Anya, Angel, Spike, _and _Harmony – they all died. And they're all still here!' Fiona stated.

'They're all heroes,' Sophie insisted. 'They were either brought back through atonement, or because they were needed, or…'

'Soph, they're only heroes because they faced things like this every day,' Elijah said softly. 'That's the only way we'll become heroes too.'

'And forgive me if I'm wrong but it sounds to me like you're the one with the 'jelly belly,' Sophie,' Eva sniffed. 'Maybe _you _should go home.'

'Eva!' Max reprimanded her.

'Guys?' Kevin muttered. 'Time to motor.'

Sophie stood unsteadily and gathered her strength. She could do it.

'Ready?' Ally said to no-one in particular.

They climbed up over the hill, and stationed themselves at the entrance, weapons at the ready.

'Go,' Sophie whispered, and they slipped through to the entrance chamber.

Immediately, guards were upon them. Lots of guards. Grey, demon guards.

'I'm seeing a flaw in this plan!' Eva yelled, fighting off a guard single handed.

'We're on it!' Sophie called. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed Kevin's hand, and they began chanting a spell they'd practised every day since they'd been informed of their mission.

The spell was complex and required total concentration and synchronicity, and it was the crux of their assault.

Suddenly the effects of the spell became apparent. The guards' motions were slowing down and their blows were becoming less deadly.

She shared a smile with Kevin before yelling to the seven younger children that they should go find the staff.

'We'll finish these off!' she grinned as she caught the sword thrown to her by a hastily departing Eva.

Eva glanced back as she ran with her accomplices, and saw a grinning Sophie hack the head off of a guard about to attack Manny.

Eva beamed as she ran on in front of her brother, skidding to a halt when she reached a large pillar they could all hide behind.

They paused panting for breath.

'I think that worked!' Max whispered. 'All the guards rushed straight to the door!'

'And the ones that didn't were still affected,' Elijah observed, gesturing to the guard who was running lethargically toward the entrance chamber.

Emily loaded her crossbow and shot him in the leg as he passed slowly by, causing him to crumple on the floor near the pillar.

'Where do we go now?' Max asked.

'I vote over there, Jenna suggested, pointing to a door to their far right, which was covered in electronic locking devices.

'Bugger!' Emily muttered. 'How do we get through all of that?

'We don't…' Eva smiled. 'But I'm betting he can!' She pointed at the groaning guard on the ground next to them.

Dermot looked round at the entrance chamber. Guards were still slowly streaming into it, and there was probably still a lot inside. Even though they were moving very slowly, they still vastly outnumbered the five teenagers fighting them one by one inside. 'We have time, the others are still fighting.'

'Max, Elijah, grab the guard. Everyone else, over to the door and we'll see what there is to do,' Eva commanded.

Her classmates followed her instructions, and soon they were all crowded round the door, the guard having been given several nasty electric shocks by Eva, the most proficient witch of the group, when he had refused to comply with their demands.

'I don't know how -' the guard started again in his croaky voice, before being cut off buy another jolt from Eva. It was her favourite spell, and the one she was best at.

'Okay, okay…I'll do it, just no more…goddamn electricity!'

He slowly, sluggishly, raised his hands and began to unlock the door.

'One thing…' he said as he worked. 'After I'm done…'

'Yeah?' Max encouraged him, earning a nudge from Eva.

'Kill me…'

The children were shocked to hear this from the guard, but soon realised that the punishment from Warren for helping the enemy would be worse than death. They agreed to his request, and after the guard had unlocked the last electronic bolt, Max regretfully took his sword and plunged it through his heart.

The children pushed the door open and stepped inside. When they saw the huge cage along the wall, their jaws dropped and they rushed over.

Spike was the first to notice them

'What the – what the_ hell _are you kids doing here?'

'We're here to rescue you.'

'Well _that's_ not gone to plan…' Buffy shared a look with Giles.

'Bugger,' he said simply.

'Oh don't worry, the older kids you 'chose' are back in the entrance chamber. We're just on recon,' said Eva bitterly.

'We should go back now, help 'em out. Then we'll come back and save you,' Dermot said happily.

'Dermot! Emily! You're only in first year! What are you doing here? Did Sophie and everyone tell you to come?' Buffy demanded.

'No, we came ourselves, we didn't realise anyone else was coming. We though it was crazy not to try and rescue you,' Max said looking up at his Principle.

'Awww!' Fred beamed.

The staff all turned to look at her.

'Well, it _was _sweet of them…'she trailed off at the look of disapproval on everyone else's faces. 'But very, very wrong.'

'We have to go – we'll be back!'

The children ran back out of the room, carefully propping the heavy door open with a tightly wedged arrowhead.

'You were plannin' that all along, weren't you Summers?' Gunn turned to her, arms crossed and eyebrow raised, a smile playing on his features.

Buffy grinned sheepishly. 'Wasn't quite what I'd intended…'

xxxxx

Sophie chopped the last guard standing in half. The pieces fell to the grey, blood covered floor.

'We did it!' she looked up at her friends.

'That's not technically 'mission over,' sweetheart,' Kevin sighed. 'We still have a way to go.'

'Speaking of…' Ally said, looking at the door, through which had just spilled Eva, Elijah, Max, Jenna, Fiona, Emily and Dermot.

'What's the sitch?' Jackson demanded of the group.

'They're in a chamber along there,' Eva panted, gesturing loosely behind her. 'They're in a cage. We'll need something big to get them out.'

'Ah ha…' Manny said, pulling a small package out of his pocket.

'What's that?' Emily asked.

'Explosives. Is the cage big enough so that we can blow up one end without people getting hurt?'

'You kept those in your _pocket_?' Eva exclaimed.

'Yes, it'll be big enough,' Elijah assured him, ignoring his sister. 'Let's go.'

They all made their way silently to the large, heavy, door, which was propped open just as they'd left it.

Sophie pushed the door open and stepped inside, everyone else following her.

She halted mid-step, causing her friends to pile up behind her.

And as the slick voice reached their ears, they all knew why she'd stopped.

'So…to what do we owe _this_ pleasure?' Warren was standing in the middle of the room, smiling broadly.

xxxxx

Warren was walking slowly round the room, talking loudly about his plans and how he was going to make sure each of them were executed perfectly and how everyone here would die…but Sophie wasn't listening. She had her hands in her pockets, desperately trying to work a small magical device that she and Kevin had conjured just after they'd been told of their mission.

She tried to look terrified as she tried to visualise what she should be doing with the device. If Warren suspected anything, the last trick up their sleeves would be well and truly useless, and there would be nothing else she or anyone else could do to help.

She almost smiled as she finally got the right components together, but fixed her mask-like expression again as soon as it slipped.

She let go of the device as it silently did its job, and tuned into what Warren was saying.

Even as the device worked perfectly, her mask fell away and her features melted into those filled with genuine horror.

xxxxx

Back at the school, a loud bell rang in the cafeteria, where all the students were still assembled. Their heads shot up and everyone looked around wildly for the source of the noise.

Suddenly, Sophie's voice reached them as clear as if she'd been speaking at the podium.

'Students of Potential, this is Sophie Carmichael speaking, and we need your help.'

She coughed in the background. 'This is, uh, a pre-recorded message by the way.'

The students in the cafeteria looked round at each other in bemusement.

'Four other students and I were asked to aid the staff when they invaded Warren's headquarters. And if you're hearing this message it means something has gone seriously wrong, and we need your help. Take weapons, spells, anything that you think will help you, because you need to get to the Oracl Ruins straightaway. Use a locator spell to find out where we are in the ruins, and make your way there. Your staff are in danger.'

The echoes faded and the students were silent. Then suddenly, there was a mass scraping of chairs as hundreds of students rose to their feet, and ran to collect the items they needed.

As the students readied themselves for battle, the coven sat in the library, surrounded by elements needed for a very special ritual. Hearing Sophie's echoing announcement, they quickly assembled themselves into a circle and began chanting.

xxxxx

Back at the ruins, Warren was still talking amiably about his plans.

'And then, after I take over the government, there'll be no stopping me. Me and the combowarrior will effectively be rulers of the world.' He smiled at the room. 'How cool is that?'

He checked his watch. 'Speaking of…the ritual should be nearly complete by now…'

He frowned. 'Where's Amy?'

At his words, Amy walked through the door and over to Warren. 'The brotherhood is almost ready baby.' She stood on tiptoe and whispered in his ear, 'Any…minute…now…'

As Warren and Amy embraced, there could suddenly be heard a loud, rumbling noise.

Sophie's head jerked up.

As it came closer, the rumbling noise sounded like angry footsteps. Hundreds of angry footsteps.

With a loud battle cry, the students of Potential came streaming through the door of the chamber that held the staff in their cage.

With hundreds of students in the room and more outside, Warren looked shocked and angry.

'_What is going on_?' he screamed.

Buffy caught Sophie's eye and beamed, but before she could say a word, she slumped to the ground.

Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, Spike, Angel and Dawn followed, and then the eight of them began twitching and convulsing in unison.

'The ritual!' Sophie whispered in desperation.

'The ritual,' Warren sighed contentedly. 'Finally, something's going right.'

* * *

A/N: Please review this chapter. I'm getting nervous about concluding this story, and it's gone in a slightly different direction that I'd intended, but I hope you're enjoying it._ Please_ review, it's so disheartening to see how many people read this and how few review!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

A/N: I'm updating more quickly now that we're nearing an end. I hope you're still enjoying Potential. I'm currently planning a possible sequel to this, so please let me know if you think I should keep going with this thread.

* * *

**Chapter 9**

_Twenty minutes past midnight_

_The Oracl Ruins_

Buffy caught Sophie's eye and beamed, but before she could say a word, she slumped to the ground.

Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, Spike, Angel and Dawn followed, and then the eight of them began twitching and convulsing in unison.

'The ritual!' Sophie whispered in desperation.

'The ritual,' Warren sighed contentedly. 'Finally, something's going right.'

Sophie looked at her fellow pupils in horror.

'No!' She yelled.

The students of Potential seemed to take her cry as a command. They ran forward and swarmed around Warren and Amy, crushing them against a wall, and whether slayer, watcher, half demon or Wicca, they threw at them any weapon they could, magical or otherwise. All of Warren's guards had been slaughtered, but his enormous collection of Urala minions came rushing to his defence as the students descended upon him. Any student who could reach them was trying their hardest to cause as much pain to them as possible, while a group of Willow's most advanced pupils had all grabbed hold of each others' hands, and were blasting apart the cage with the sheer volume of spells being thrown at it. Their screams of '_Inflatus!_' and '_Praemium!_' were barely heard above the sounds of swords clashing and arrows magically zooming through the air to reach their target.

Eva and Elijah were standing at the edge of the room commanding a collection of axes and maces to fight the Uralas, while Ally and Jackson were fighting the demons hand to hand, using a such a variety of styles that Gunn would have been extremely proud of them.

Manny and several other werewolves were using the skills they had learned from Oz to fight. They were making themselves go halfway between their coherent human sides and their wild wolf sides, thus enabling them to fight with the skills of a wolf and the mind of a human. The other half demons were using their own God given gifts to fight in any way they could.

The staff, however, had barely noticed the war raging around them.

'Buffy? Buffy! No!' Faith was crouched next to the slayer, holding her by the shoulders, trying to wake her. Andrew knelt next to her and tried to revive Giles. Rhona and Vi scooped up Xander and began feeling for a pulse.

Harmony, seeing what everyone else was doing, ran to the nearest unconscious body – Anya - and lifted her, trying to get some reaction.

'Oh my God…' Fred whispered as she watched Spike convulse in front of her. She ran toward him and tried to stop him twitching and shaking. She was quickly joined by Raven.

Gunn was trying to shake Angel awake. 'Come on man, come on…'

Lorne was kneeling over Dawn, trying to soothe her as she writhed on the ground. 'Stop, Dawnikins, come on now, shhh…'

Wesley stared wide eyed at the scene in front of him.

'Gunn, you can't wake him – Faith, stop.'

'How can you be so calm?' Layla demanded. 'Look at what's happening! We have to stop this!'

'We can't – the prophecy said -' Wesley began, before being drowned out by a cry of deepest despair.

'No! _Willow!_' Oz cried. 'I just got you back! _No!_'

He was bent over her shaking form, trying to hold her in his arms, but unable to keep her there.

Cordelia stared open mouthed at the cage floor where they lay. Tears streamed down her face. 'No…not now, we've lasted so long… _So_ long…' she sank to the ground next to where Xander and Willow lay and tried to help Oz, Vi and Rhona to wake them, though she could barely see them through her tears.

Amy and Warren were half buried in a sea of angry pupils, but, as they caught a glimpse of the cage and its inhabitants, Amy wondered if she'd ever seen Warren as happy as he looked right then.

_Twenty minutes past midnight_

_The school_

The coven was in the library, still in their circle, chanting softly in Latin when the prophecy began to fulfil itself at the ruins.

'_Nos es sanctimonialis, succurro nos ingravesco, permissum nos servo lemma._

_Permissum nos servo lemma, nos es sanctimonialis, succurro nos ingravesco._'

Suddenly Althenea's head shot up. Her eyes facing skyward, she began to chant in a different language, so fast the others couldn't translate it.

'_Dénos la energía, nosotros son la energía. Dénos la energía, nosotros son la energía._'

Knowing that their timing was essential, the other women sliced a deep cut into each of their hands and let the blood fall into a circle in the middle of the room.

As suddenly as she had started, Althenea stopped, and when she stood, colour seemed to fade from her hair and clothes, leaving only a bright, emanating white light.

The women of the coven clasped hands and colour drained from all of them.

The four white haired, white clothed women exhaled sharply and all colour returned to them.

'It's time,' Althenea said, breathing heavily.

The women each closed their eyes and faded into nothing.

xxxxx

The four women materialised in the chamber where the staff were being held almost immediately.

'_Videlicet Tractus!_' Althenea yelled, clearing the room magically.

All the debris from the blasted cage disappeared, but instead of taking students out of the room, the spell just made the room bigger. There was a large space in the middle, where she, Paige, Helena and Cassandra all sat.

'What is this?' Warren yelled from the middle of the crowd of students.

For the first time, Warren looked threatened.

He strode forward and into the clearing. His skinless features were twisted as fear took hold of him.

'What are you doing? No living entity can defeat the brotherhood of Fusengor!'

Althenea stood, and calmly turned to face Warren.

'No living entity… Until now.'

With a flash of her eyes, she immobilised Warren and Amy where they stood.

'We are the Sisterhood of Rosufeng. The only force with the power to stop the Fusengor.'

Warren felt like he couldn't breathe.

She sat back down and began chanting again.

Unbeknownst to anyone but the coven; several chambers away, deep inside the ruins, the Brotherhood of Fusengor were being periodically stripped of all power and authority. The coven were taking their strength and their jurisdiction over the magical world, and turning it against them. They were going to use that power to restore souls and skills to whomever they rightfully belonged.

The coven stopped chanting and began to channel their energy into restoring their colleagues to their former selves.

Without warning, the eight convulsing bodies that lay on the floor of the cage rose into the air, dragged out of the arms holding them still.

'What? What's going on?' yelled Raven, tear stained and stricken.

'Is that the coven doing that?' Lorne cried.

'I don't believe it is,' Wesley replied quietly, looking up at the bodies of his friends.

Something pale and shimmering was drifting out of Buffy, Giles, Xander and Willow, and into Dawn, Spike, Anya and Angel.

The coven looked up, panicked.

'Althenea!' Helena yelped. 'It's started!'

Suddenly, something much darker and more solid came up from inside Willow, Xander and Giles, taking residence inside Buffy's almost emptied body.

Meanwhile Anya, Angel, Spike and Dawn were juddering and shaking again. All of a sudden, Dawn began screaming, and it was the most excruciatingly painful sound any of them had ever heard. Her soul was being pushed out of her body.

Then, from Angel's body, the sound of Xander screaming sounded like a siren.

'Xander's in Angel?' Faith whispered her voice sounding hoarse.

'Angel's winning…' Gunn choked, holding Faith in his arms as she shook with fear.

The sound of Spike screaming as his soul began to slip reached their ears almost as soon as Willows did, coming from Anya's body.

Dawn's screaming stopped, followed by Xander's, Spike's and Willow's.

The bodies fell to the ground, and the silvery misted orbs of the expelled souls hung above them, fading slowly into transparency. Soon they'd fade entirely.

The expelled souls belonged to Willow, Spike, Xander and Dawn.

The people left were Angel, in his own body, Giles, in Spike's body, Buffy, in Dawn's, and Anya, in her own.

Buffy looked up at the misty orbs that were still steadily fading away.

'No! Dawn!'

'Buffy,' Angel pointed at something much lower than the souls, but Buffy couldn't tear her eyes away from her sister's slowly fading soul. 'Buffy!'

She forced herself to look down, and immediately wished she hadn't.

She could see her body, her face, filled to the brim with power. Her eyes were black and she was so strong that waves seemed to be coming off her, but worst of all, Buffy could see clearly that this being had absolutely no humanity.

No fear, no guilt, no conscience.

And suddenly she became aware that she was in her sister's body. Buffy felt a wave of guilt. She'd forced her own sister's soul out of its body…

Her sister's body was much weaker than Buffy's own, and it felt different.

'Oh my God. Oh my _God…_'

The coven was emanating waves of their own power as they generated more force than they had ever before.

'Althenea...' Paige whispered.

'We don't…have enough…strength…' panted Cassandra.

Althenea stood, never breaking concentration, and walked toward Sophie. When Althenea grabbed her hand, she knew what to do.

Sophie yelled as loud and clear as she could. 'Everyone hold hands! Work together, share your power!'

As the hundreds of students all did as they were told, the waves of power rolling off them were so strong that the floor and ceiling cracked with the heat, and the magic immobilising Warren and Amy tightened so much that they began to blister. The magic binding them cracked, and they were released, only to be caught in the most powerful flow of good magic since Willow made all potentials slayers. They didn't last long in that kind of heat. As they ran for the exit, all their hopes of world domination dashed, they ran into a furious Locar, the miniature Urala that Warren had mistreated so badly.

As the battle raged on, the Urala took his revenge with hitherto unseen powers.

Sophie looked around the room and saw her classmates; the most powerful collection of teenagers in the world, working together, sharing their primal powers to save those that taught and nurtured them, and even amidst all the pain and fear in the room, Sophie felt a huge surge of pride. Pride for her fellow students, and pride for herself, for being a part of this huge, powerful family.

Althenea broke her hold with Sophie and raised both arms to the ceiling, before bringing them sharply down.

The misted silvery clouds surrounding the souls became clearer, then were being summoned back to this plane, with another surge of power, Althenea directed all the switched powers and souls back to their original sources. The whole room became misted for a moment, before all became clear again, and Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Angel, Spike, Anya and Dawn all stood, trembling, shaking and slightly queasy, but themselves.

The students let go of each other and stumbled as they felt the waves of power they'd generated from deep inside themselves fill them up again.

Althenea stood, trembling. 'We did it,' she whispered.

Suddenly, the room was filled with whooping and cheers from the hundreds of pupils there. The sounds reached the ceiling and everyone was filled with the kind of euphoria you only got after saving the world.

Buffy walked out of the cage first, followed by the others whom the school had help save.

The cheering faded as Buffy prepared to speak.

'Althenea…how?' Buffy asked, astounded.

Althenea smiled, as did Cassandra, Paige and Helena.

'It's a long story…why don't we go back to the school. We'll explain there, after everyone's rested and re-energised.'

Buffy smiled at Althenea, before turning to the exit.

The crowd parted for her, as, with Angel by her side, and her friends behind her, she began to walk back to her school, where she would find all the answers she desperately craved.

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A/N: I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, because it's the penultimate one.

The next chapter I post will be the last, and hopefully it'll give you all the answers you need. If you have any right now, though, please let me know and I'll include an explanation.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: See chapter one

Disclaimer: See chapter one

A/N: This is the very last chapter, guys. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, especially _**Geeky13**_ who has been my most faithful reviewer since about chapter 5. I really hope you enjoy this chapter, and I hope you read the sequel, which I will begin to post as soon as I get all my ideas on paper.

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**Chapter 10**

It was two hours later, and most of the students of Potential had retired to their comfortable beds, safe in the knowledge that they'd find out _everything_ the next day.

However, a large group of people were assembled in the library, waiting desperately for the answers to the questions that plagued them. These privileged people would find out everything that night.

The people were grouped around three large tables positioned end to end. Around one table were Buffy, Angel, Willow, Oz, Xander, Anya, Giles, Wesley, Fred, Dawn and Andrew. Around another were Sophie, Kevin, Manny, Jackson, Ally, Eva, Elijah, Dermot, Jenna, Fiona, Max and Emily. Around the third were Vi, Rhona, Lorne, Clem, Harmony, Faith, Gunn, Cordelia, Spike, Raven, Layla, Cassandra, Paige, Helena and Althenea. Sitting on a bookshelf nearby, was Locar, who had asked if he could return to the school, as an ally. His request had been approved immediately.

The room was filled with nervous chatter as everyone got themselves comfortable for what promised to be a long night of explanations, confusion, and at least a small amount of bickering.

Gradually, the room fell silent, and everyone looked toward Buffy, who looked surprised.

'Hey, don't look at me, I don't know anything!' She said indignantly. 'Althenea? Could ya start from the top, please?'

'I would, Buffy, but I don't really know where the top is…' she said, frowning.

''Kay, then, I'll start,' Anya said, leaning forward. 'You told us the coven was completely blocked against the Fusengor. What changed?' Her tone was slightly accusatory.

The coven looked at one another. 'We did,' Paige replied.

'I'm still needing back story here, guys,' Buffy said, yawning, Anya nodding fervently. Angel looked at Buffy, smiling, and placed his hand over hers.

'Well,' Althenea sighed. 'I suppose it all started when we told Anya our powers were blocked. After that, as you know, we joined the workers in the library to try and find a way around the Fusengor.'

Paige then took up the narrative. 'Then, just before the school was attacked, Helena found a book that was all about the rivalries of ancient Sister and Brotherhoods. In the book was a chapter dedicated to the Fusengor, detailing their ability to do a ritual like the one we saw tonight.'

'And just as we were getting excited,' Helena continued, 'The school was raided. And we were really busy, y'know, curing people for the next coupla days. But when we could, we read up on the Brotherhood. Then, two days ago, we read a passage saying that no entity could stop the Fusengor except one, the Sisterhood of Rosufeng. The sisterhood were the polar opposites of the Fusengor. They were all things good and pure, whereas the Fusengor were just pure evil. Hence Warren using them in his ritual.'

'So,' Cassandra spoke, 'we decided to find the sisterhood. We searched for information about their whereabouts for about a day before Paige discovered a whole book about the sisterhood, which told us that the Rosufeng had been wiped out centuries ago, by select members of the Fusengor. We were totally crushed.'

She paused, taking in the expressions of the people around her.

Most of the people in the room looked totally flummoxed.

Giles and Wesley were perhaps the only people without sleepy frowns on their faces.

'So what did you do?' Sophie asked in a hushed voice.

'We immediately sourced a way to _become_ the sisterhood ourselves,' Paige answered.

'_Become_… but how?' Fred asked, wrinkling her nose as she stopped herself from yawning.

'We found the correct ritual, in a particularly gruesome volume, and we prepared to perform it.'

'When was this?' Giles asked.

'Around about the time Sophie's message reached the school,' answered Althenea. 'So we hurried.'

'Yeah, and it wasn't easy,' Helena raised her eyebrows.

'Chanting, blood rites, sacrifice to the Gods…' Cassandra nodded, showing the fresh cut on her palm.

'Much like pledging a sorority then?' Wesley remarked.

Most everyone cracked a smile, except for Dermot, who looked mildly perplexed.

'What's a soro-' he began, before being elbowed in the ribs by Eva. He turned to face her. 'What?'

'Shhh!' She hissed at him.

Pouting slightly, Dermot turned back to Althenea.

'I'm sorry we couldn't do it sooner, but we only just found the way tonight…'

Everyone smiled in understanding. 'Althenea, you saved us. All of you, you stopped the prophecy from coming true. We can't thank you enough,' Buffy smiled.

'Hey…I'm having a thought…' Oz mused from his seat next to Willow. 'The prophecy. I thought it said Willow had to stop it?'

'You're right,' Wesley frowned.

'It's possible we misinterpreted it,' Giles commented. 'Where is it? Let's have a look.'

Cordelia slid off her chair and grabbed the book from Kit's desk.

'I think this is it.'

'Page seven hundred and seventy seven, Giles,' Dawn called down the table.

''The tree is the key,

impart her earthly power.

The only way to win the fray

Wage war within the hour.

Use the knowledge of the past,

The battles long since won,

Or all Potential will be quashed.

An apocalypse will come.'' He raised his eyebrows. 'So many happy memories.'

''The tree is the key…' Who else would it be but Willow?' Xander closed his eyes and tried to think.

'Maybe it doesn't mean Willow…maybe it means the earth. Like, just magic. Base magic, Wicca,' Althenea offered. 'The tree is the key…the Wicca's are the key.'

'I guess…' Buffy frowned.

'You do realise this doesn't actually matter, seeing as we've won the battle already?' Faith interjected, drumming her fingers against the tabletop.

'Yeah, but I'm the one that's gonna have to write up a huge report of this so we can cover it in Scooby history class!' Xander cried. 'I'd like to know all the facts!'

'Well, then, for Xander's piece of mind, I think we can all agree that the prophecy meant that the coven were the key,' Anya said. 'Happy now, honey?'

Xander smiled at her.

'Actually, on that topic, does anyone else feel oddly happy? Is that just me? I feel like a weight's been taken off my shoulders. It's weird,' Spike mumbled.

'That's understandable. You were under a spell, and your soul was affected. Now that's been lifting, your soul will be euphoric that it's still whole and entirely it's own,' Wesley explained.

'Wait, guys, the prophecy said we have to use the knowledge from the past to win this fight,' Xander interrupted, still trying to make sense of everything. 'What did we use?'

Everyone fell silent.

'I think,' Giles began, thoughtfully, 'that it was Althenea, when she…yes, I think that's what it was.' He fell silent.

Everyone stared at him. 'Care to explain just a little more, Giles, so people that don't speak _Watcher _can understand?' Harmony snapped, folding her arms

'Yes, sorry…Harmony,' Giles frowned at her, before addressing the group again. 'Tell me, what were the common denominators in every battle any of us has ever faced?'

'It's always been scarring?' Xander offered.

'No – well yes. But no.' Giles looked around for any more offers.

'We've always worked together,' Angel said, tightening his grip momentarily on Buffy's hand. 'Side by side.'

'Hand in hand,' Giles agreed. 'The coven would not have been able to act tonight, if it had not been for Althenea and Sophie connecting everyone's power. Am I right, Althenea?' He looked at her fondly.

'Yes, Rupert, I believe you are.' She smiled back at him. 'It was that act which enabled us to correct the situation, and 'win the fray,' as it were.'

The group fell silent, finally out of questions.

Until 'Hey – what happened to Warren and Amy?' Eva asked loudly.

Dermot now elbowed her in the ribs, imitating her loud hushing noise.

Ignoring this, Buffy answered. 'They were found in the ruins, mauled and eviscerated. Not sure who by. Anyone got any ideas?'

The Urala slid down from his bookshelf and padded over to the table, before unfolding his tiny wings and flying to sit in front of Buffy.

'It was me. I'm sorry,' Locar mumbled sadly. 'I was filled with rage, and - and vengeance, and I felt I had to act.'

'That's alright, Locar,' Giles addressed the demon, which turned around to face him. 'You did, I suppose, a good thing in ridding the world of those two. But,' he continued, 'you must never kill another person, not if you truly want to work with us.'

'I do!' Locar squeaked. 'I do. And I won't harm another human. I promise.'

Giles smiled at the Urala. 'But what am I to do while I'm here?' Locar asked Giles.

'You can help me, Locar,' Clem said amiably. 'I could always use a hand. Being the chef and janitor isn't as glamorous as it sounds.'

Locar beamed and flew down to sit with Clem, who, slightly bewildered, patted the tiny demon clumsily on the head.

'That was weird,' Buffy remarked sleepily to Angel, who smiled back at her.

'Come on, Buffy. You're exhausted,' Angel said, helping her to her feet.

'As are we all. I suggest we all get some rest, before regular school begins again tomorrow,' Giles said, to general groans from staff and students alike.

Giles waited behind, as everyone trailed out of the room.

Angel was supporting a half asleep Buffy as he walked her to her rooms. Willow and Oz were walking hand in hand, and Anya and Xander arm in arm. Raven was whispering in Spikes ear as they walked, and Fred and Wesley had their arms around each other. Giles stretched, chuckling slightly as he saw Faith, who was obviously feeling left out with all the couples surrounding her, sling her arm around Gunn, and, holding him close, sauntering out of the room after Sophie and the students.

Giles picked up his tattered, cage worn jacket and headed for the door, feeling immensely proud of his surrogate family. There were so many new possibilities, chances for new beginnings, now that they'd all opened their eyes and seen that what they wanted was right in front of them. He was rubbing his tired eyes when he felt a presence beside him. It was Althenea, who was also heading for her quarters.

As he smiled at her and offered to walk her to her rooms, an old familiar feeling rose in his chest that he hadn't felt since Jenny Calendar had died, and Giles couldn't help but feel that these were new beginnings for them all.

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A/N: So there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed Potential. I loved writing it and I hope you liked reading it. Please keep an eye for my sequel, _**Pandora's Box**_, which I will hopefully begin posting in the next few days. If you have any questions regarding _**Pandora's Box**_, this chapter or any other, please ask me, and I'll do my best to explain. Thank you for your kind reviews, and please, keep them coming!


	11. Pandora's Box Preview

Pandora's Box

Pandora's Box

For those of you who enjoyed Potential, I have begun a sequel, which I hope you'll like as much as you did Potential!

Please read it, and hopefully I'll update it soon.

_Preview of Pandora's Box_

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Most of the staff had dispersed to their quarters, but Buffy, Giles, Willow and Xander remained in a guest room where they'd placed the girl on the bed.

'Who do you think she is, Giles?' Willow asked for the umpteenth time.

'We'll just have to wait to find out,' Giles sighed.

'Why is she dressed so…' Xander stuttered. 'So, um,' he coughed, 'Pro – pr - provocatively?'

'I don't know, Xander, but in the meantime, you just keep your eyes fixed on the ceiling, there's a good boy.' Buffy shook her head.

Suddenly, the girl stirred. Opening her eyes, she sat up and swept her long hair out of her face.

'Where am…have I come to the – the place? The right place?' she whispered, her voice lilted with an accent the others didn't recognise.

'That depends what you're looking for,' Buffy said, sitting on the end of the bed.

'Help…I need help,' she croaked.

'What's your name?' Giles enquired.

'Pandora…'

'Like with the box?' Xander quipped.

'No. I have no box…everyone always asks me that. Why?' She frowned momentarily. 'I am a demon.' She finished slowly.

'A demon?' Buffy said, surprised.

'Yes, a demon, but benevolent. I came to you because I know you would understand. You have benevolent demons in your order also, do you not?' She shivered slightly. 'I am cold.'

'Xand, get her a blanket. And Pandora, yeah, we have demons working with us. But what is it you need help with?'

As Xander fetched a patchwork blanket from the cupboard, she replied.

'Another demon – Slith. He kidnapped my brother, he wishes me also. I must hide, I must…can you protect me?'

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To find out more please read and review!


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